


Saudade

by literary_goblin



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 31,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24373000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literary_goblin/pseuds/literary_goblin
Summary: A year in the life of a rebel with a cause and a rebel in search of one…
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Original Character(s), Cassian Andor/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 8





	1. I: Disdain

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'll be honest, this idea started out very different from what it is now - originally I wanted a quick Cassian x reader, but the plot developed into something so much bigger, and I decided that I needed a fully fledged OC to tell the story!
> 
> This will be a story in six parts - I would say short story, but each chapter is over 10k words, so it's far from being short. I'm currently writing chapter five, so hopefully those last two chapters will come together quickly and I can have regularly scheduled posting dates.
> 
> Also! It's worth mentioning the pronunciation of the name Jai that's featured - it's not Jay, but rather Ji (like pi). I've heard it both ways, and something about that second pronunciation has always charmed me.

Setting foot on the Ring of Kafrene always posed a risk for Cassian Andor. The Ring, being an Empire territory, was always crawling with stormtroopers just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey, whether that prey be a rebel or a petty street thief. The trading post was home to Maker knows how many people and races, dense with the traffic of travelers and traders alike no matter the time or day. Cassian was lucky, having not yet encountered any problems with the resentful soldiers, but, then again, he was well-versed in how to keep a low profile, how to evade the Empire forces on each street and lingering outside every shop, how to simply blend into the crowd as if he were any other visiting trader; many of the other rebels he knew through the years weren't quite so lucky.

Cassian had arrived at the Ring of Kafrene not but an hour ago to meet with Tivik, the Rebellion's informant stationed in the colony who, although endlessly trepidatious, was almost always reliable. For months now Cassian had been making routine visits to the Ring to collect intel, each visit bringing the Rebellion small steps closer to being able to take on the Galactic Empire. Many times, Tivik had information that really served little use to Cassian, however, he could never know when a meeting would be a hit or miss.

This particular visit was a miss; all Tivik could provide was information the Rebellion had already known, and though he made no show of chiding Tivik for wasting his time, Cassian was nevertheless miffed about the wasted trip.

Cassian maneuvered through the crowded streets focused and in silence, avoiding any of the usual Kafrene distractions he'd grown accustomed to encountering. The colony was disgustingly overpopulated and became temporary residence for far too many travelers on any given day, drawing the attentions of thieves from every walk of life, whether they be petty pickpockets just looking to grab a few tradables or accomplished slicers intent on draining someone's account of all their credits. Whatever the case, Cassian was careful to avoid everyone on the Ring, both merchants, pedestrians, and thieves alike.

Cassian was so focused on returning to his U-Wing that he hadn't taken immediate notice of the KX security droid walking down the intersecting street ahead of him, though it didn't take the captain very long to spot the robotic eyesore amongst the crowd. It could have been any other KX droid, which there were a small number of in Kafrene, but the slight alteration to it's gait would clue to anyone in the know that this particular model was in fact the reprogrammed K-2SO.

Cassian's brow furrowed as his jaw set, approaching the droid - he was supposed to be waiting back at the ship, but, in true fashion, the droid elected to ignore that particular direction. Trips to Kafrene were always easier when the captain went on his own, but on occasion the droid insisted on tagging along despite Cassian telling him each and every time to just stay on the ship.

K-2SO had already noticed Cassian's approach, and once the man was close and readying to scold the droid as if he were a disobedient child, Kay spoke up first, "There seems to be a particularly high count of stormtroopers today, Cassian."

The captain hadn't made the same observation as the droid, but he didn't allow the statement to distract him from his intent, "I told you not to leave the ship."

"Yes, well, I have a bad feeling about this increased Empire presence, you're better off with me nearby if conflict were to arise." Cassian stared hard up into the eyes of the droid for a few long moments before peeling away his gaze, looking around to assess the number of stormtroopers currently in their proximity. At the moment, he could only spot a pair far down the street that he'd just walked up - he figured that wherever Kay may have noticed the excess stormtroopers had to be nearer to the colony's starport.

"Do you not think your presence might _draw_ their attention to me?" Cassian questioned while turning back to Kay. If a droid could make an expression, Cassian was sure K-2SO was looking down at him with something akin to ridicule. Even the way the droid raised his arm, hand pointed in the direction they'd have to walk to return to their ship, seemed somehow mocking.

"Go, walk ahead, I'll keep my distance." Kay spoke with attitude, to which Cassian side-eyed as he passed by the droid to lead them back to the ship.

* * *

The starport on the Ring of Kafrene was every thief's dream. Ships of traders, merchants, and everything in between were left relatively unattended, any security could be bought off if one had the right connections, and, if one was smart, they could make off with thousands of credits worth of goods. As ships improved and as droid security began to take over, it became more and more challenging for the average thief to get out of the port without being caught, but that meant less competition for the slicers amongst the Ring's residents.

Slicers weren't all that easy to come by on the trading colony. Actually, _good_ ones weren't easy to come by - any amateur that somehow managed to get their hands on scramble keys suddenly started calling themselves slicers. And those were the same amateurs that got themselves thrown into a cell within hours of proclaiming, with severe overconfidence, that they had the skill to hack anyone's computer. No, the thieves drawn to the Ring of Kafrene very rarely had the aptitude for hacking, but then again, the colony wasn't exactly a prime destination for codebreakers to begin with. Slicers were far better suited for the Outer Rim Territories, on planets like Cantonica or Nevarro, where their skills could be put toward big jobs, where they were less likely to be harassed by any kind of authority. To be a slicer in the Expansion Territory was practically asking for trouble, asking for stormtroopers and the Empire to toss one behind bars without mercy.

However, there were a rare few slicers that could get by particularly well on the Ring of Kafrene. One of those infamous slicers, who managed to somehow be renowned in the slums of the colony and yet never encounter any trouble from the Empire, was named Tillian.

Tillian was a man known only by that one name, and very few had the pleasure of learning anything about him beyond that. As far as slicers went, he was arguably one of the best throughout the entirety of the Expansion Territory; and despite his criminal activity, Tillian had the consideration to share his skills with a select few that he saw potential in through the years. And one of those few was Jai'ren Tillian.

Jai was a young woman of unknown origin, but of well-known talent among the underbelly residents of the Ring of Kafrene. She may not have been a strong thief in comparison to all the competition that loitered around the colony, but where she lacked in pickpocketing, she excelled in hacking. Of the half dozen or so that Tillian had trained through the years, Jai proved to be the most apt for the talent of slicing, even from an early age.

Currently, Jai was taking the risk of breaking into multiple ships crammed into Kafrene's overcrowded starport. This wasn't her first, nor did she intend for it to be her last, visit to the port, slicing her way onto ships of all classes and sizes; Jai found that, for her, it was far easier to focus and get a job done when she wasn't distracted by the hustle and bustle of the cramped trading streets, and the risk of sneaking into the parking port was well worth the quiet she needed to get her task done.

Jai had just unlocked a third ship, stuffing her scramble key into the inner pocket of her coat while pushing a stray strand of ashy brown hair back up into her cap, careful to avoid shifting the goggles situated atop it. She threw a cautious glance back over her shoulder, bird-like eyes searching and ears listening to ensure no one had taken notice of her. With a satisfied expression she quickly ducked into the U-Wing and closed the door behind her to avoid any unwanted attention.

Jai stood in the hull, realizing that, despite the appearance from the outside that the ship was large, it's interior was actually a rather cramped space. Nibbling the inside of her lip, she eyed the hull left then right; she realized within a few moments that it didn't look like there was all that much lying around that would be worth anything to her. There were hardly any compartments or cubbies for storing goods, and it looked like the only serious computer aboard the ship wasn't used for much more than tracking whereabouts and sending messages. She let out a derided sigh while sliding her hands into the pockets of her worn pants, fingers toying with a small box she'd grabbed from the last ship she broke into just minutes prior.

 _'What a waste,'_ she thought, her eyes scanning the ship again in slow consideration. It looks as if she put in a lot of effort for a whole lot of nothing. But she might as well search for something, anything, to at least deem said effort reasonable - maybe, despite appearances, she could get her hands on something good.

"Right," Jai spoke aloud to herself, extracting her hands and lazily cracking her fingers down in front of her hips. She climbed up the couple of steps into the cockpit, eyeing the equipment briefly before checking every crack and crevice for some kind of valuables. After a minute, she stepped back down into the main hull of the U-Wing, eyes scanning more astutely to make sure she hadn't missed anything obvious. This ship's interior was so small, there was hardly space for much of anything; Jai noted that it would probably have felt cramped if there were any more than four or five people aboard.

As Jai considered the size of the ship, she looked down at her feet, studying the metal floor for a few long moments before her lower lip pushed out appraisingly - unless her eyes were deceiving her, it looked as if some of the floor panels lifted. Jai dropped to one knee to test her theory, finding that there was, in fact, a handle that she twisted to unlock. But she was all too quickly disappointed, finding that what was hidden under the floor was nothing more than a row of collapsible seats. With another frustrated huff, Jai pushed back down and locked the handle back in its place.

And at that same moment, the door to the U-Wing suddenly slid open.

Jai's head shot up so quickly that her cap and goggles nearly fell from her head, her coal eyes wide as they locked onto a man a few years her senior. He was frazzled as his harsh stare burned into her, panting deeply to catch his breath as if he'd been running at top speed. The surprise in his expression upon seeing the unexpected intruder quickly gave way to a look of vexation, brow knotting as he quickly stepped up into the ship, causing Jai to jump to her feet in panic. Her eyes briefly darted past the young man with alarm as she heard the sound of blasters, spotting a KX security droid not far behind. Blindly, Jai's hands fumbled along the wall behind her in hopes that she could somehow find the button to open the second hull door.

With surprising speed, the man jumped forward, slamming Jai against the wall and knocking the wind out of her, one hand putting pressure on the base of her neck and the other roughly gripping her at the elbow of one arm. His voice came out in a loud, rough growl, " _Who the hell are you_!?"

Jai's hands flew up, one gripping at the hand on her neck, the other to his chest, roughly trying to shove him away. Her black eyes shined with the same intensity as his own as she glared.

" _Get off me_." She hissed as she heard the droid clamber into the ship, heard the sound of blasters multiplying and growing closer. Tightening his grip on Jai, the man spun them around and shoved her back, Jai stumbling on her heels a few steps until she bumped into the KX droid, expecting it to immediately apprehend them both.

"We have to get out of here." The man spoke urgently to the droid, ignoring Jai as he took a defensive stance up against the wall and out of the line of fire, which had come to a momentary pause, "Get her the hell off my ship!"

Confusion pulled at Jai's expression - this man, who certainly wasn't with the Empire, just gave an Imperial droid orders? The droid interrupted her train of thought as it's large hand dropped onto Jai's shoulder, fingers roughly digging into her skin and causing her to let out a nearly feral hiss. Once more, she was momentarily disoriented as the droid spun her around on her heel, Jai tripping forward from the motion. Her wide eyes stared ahead of her with dread, eyeing the wall of rapidly approaching stormtroopers as they started taking aim once more, assuming her to be a part of whatever kind of trouble this man had stirred up. Jai sharply inhaled as she realized just how deeply she was in over her head.

Panicked instinct took over as Jai attempted to rip away from the KX droid, managing to roughly yank herself away from it's one-handed hold; but she wasn't fast enough to avoid the blast from one of the more trigger-happy troopers, who had misread her quick movement and assumed she was preparing to take action against them.

Jai's abdomen was suddenly searing with pain, as if someone had doused her insides with gasoline and set them on fire. A ragged scream ripped from her throat as Jai collapsed backwards from the impact into the droid before falling to her knees, grasping desperately at her stomach as she dropped.

Though the moment had only lasted a second, to Cassian it was as if it all moved in slow motion. He saw how rapidly this woman's eyes went from anger to panic to pain, how roughly she was shoved back from the power of the shot, and heard how heavily her knees collided with the floor. In that split second he had to make a decision. Did he shove her out onto the port to be left to the stormtroopers' mercy, or did he close the ship door with her still inside? She could have been just a small-time thief… but what if she was a spy? She needed medical attention - maybe he should help her. But if she was a spy… he could always bring her back to Yavin 4 and throw her in a cell for a little while.

In that second of thought, which weighed on Cassian as if it had lasted minutes, he thrust his hand onto the button to close the door before clambering up to the cockpit at top speed. Just as quickly as the door hand closed, the stormtroopers outside started to take fire, their shots ringing out against the U-Wing's metal exterior.

"We need to get out of here _now_ , Kay!" He called authoritatively to the droid that still lingered over the woman, "We'll deal with her later."

Jai cursed under her breath as K-2SO moved to join Cassian in the cockpit. From where she knelt on the floor, curled into herself as she tried to ignore her pain, Jai turned her tear-stricken eyes up in the direction of the pair, her anger bubbling - she got _shot_ because these two assholes did _something_ to piss off the troopers. The fact that they were flying out of the Ring of Kafrene wasn't even a thought in her head as Jai tried to push herself up off the floor, resulting in another agonized shout to leap from between her lips. The sound called Cassian's attention, and he turned in his seat to stare sharply at the woman as she tried to fight against the pain racing through her. He met her eyes, momentarily perturbed by just how pitch black they appeared; the darkness of her eyes made the intensity of her glare all the more fiery and challenging.

Once the ship was a safe distance from the Ring of Kafrene and Cassian was certain Kay could handle the flight back to Yavin 4, he grabbed the medical pack from behind his seat and jumped down to assist the woman, particularly uninterested in having her bleed out on the floor of his U-Wing. Jai had managed to get herself propped up against the wall, slouched with the pained glare never wavering from her features as she watched Cassian approach. He held eye contact sternly, unphased by the harshness being sent his way. For a long moment, he simply stood above her, assessing Jai with a careful eye.

"Who are you?" He finally questioned, remaining firmly where he stood as Jai's gaze briefly flicked down to the medical kit in his hand.

"None of your business." She answered through clenched teeth as she tried to hold back another groan of discomfort.

"If you'd like me to help you, it is my business." He saw the woman peer at the medical bag again, obviously battling with herself over whether or not she should answer his question, "Why the hell were you on my ship?"

Jai clenched her lips tightly together as she studied the man before her - who the hell was this guy and what sort of trouble did she unintentionally get wrapped into? He had to be someone far worse than her if he had attracted the attention of every damn stormtrooper on Kafrene, which eliminated him from being any old thief or cheat. Jai assumed his ship was another obvious clue as to his affiliations, however, she knew very little about ships aside from how to break in and out of them so she could deduce nothing from it. Chances were he was a murderer or a rebel or some kind of conspirator against the Empire. Maybe even all three.

Jai gave a sudden, sharp inhale as her pain seemed to peak yet again, clenching her arms tighter around herself as she clamped her eyes shut. Cassian gauged her reaction with apathy, having decided that, until proven otherwise, he had to assume her an affiliate of the Empire to err on the side of caution. What other explanation was there for her presence aboard the U-Wing at the same moment that the stormtroopers attempted to apprehend him?

"Unless you start talking, I'll let you bleed until you pass out, and then we're dumping you on the nearest moon whether it's breathable or not." He spoke assertively, jaw tense and eyes authoritative. Jai's eyes opened a little weaker than before, agony beginning to wash away her defiant expression, "Did the Empire send you to my ship?"

Despite her discomfort, Jai gave a mocking and surprised huff, the corner of her mouth tugging into an offended grin, " _The Empire_? You think they'd hire some street rat to break into your ship?"

"Maybe you're just undercover." Cassian crossed his arms as he studied the way Jai's body began to react to her injury, how her breathing came out in shudders, how her skin began to pale, how her forehead glistened with sweat - she probably wasn't going to remain conscious all that much longer, "Look, you're not likely to make it either way, so you may as well admit the truth."

" _What_?" Genuine concern took Jai's expression at the prospect of possibly dying from this injury; she jolted from the fear, causing pain to course through her abdomen again. Cassian's brow quirked at the reaction - maybe she was just a run-of-the-mill Kafrene thief.

Jai's hand started fumbling in her coat for a moment, to which Cassian cautiously stiffened, loosening his crossed arms just enough for his free hand to linger a little closer to his blaster. She extracted what appeared to be some kind of small electronic chip, holding it in his direction a moment before dropping it into her lap, going back to pull a jewelry box from another pocket.

"I promise you, I'm just a thief," Her voice had begun to sound a little rough as she let her head drop back against the cool metal wall, "Just a thief who was looking to get some good steals; I'm not with the Empire."

Cassian stared into her worried face for a few moments longer, his brow furrowed as he watched for any nervous ticks or odd behaviors. But he spotted none, simply recognizing the desperate plea in her eyes, "… Okay."

He unfolded his arms and crossed the last few feet between them, taking a knee while opening the medical kit. A relieved inhale slipped past Jai's lips as she closed her eyes, attempting to even out her rocky breathing. After a few moments of rummaging, Cassian gave a curse under his breath - they were out of bacta spray. They must have forgotten to restock the kit after their last mission, and now he couldn't properly assist this woman.

His eyes swung back up to stare at Jai, resting his hands atop his knees as he thought - he had no choice but to bring her back to headquarters medical, because he surely couldn't turn around and try to drop her off with some doctor back on Kafrene. If he didn't bring her back with them to Yavin 4, there was no guarantee she'd get the proper help she needed, and Cassian wasn't interested in letting an innocent woman die because of him, even if she is a thief.

Jai realized Cassian had come to a pause and she opened her eyes, tiredly looking over at him expectantly, "… I don't have the supplies I need to fix this. I might have enough to hold you over until I can get you medical attention, though."

" _Might_?" Her voice was weaker, but her fear was no less obvious.

Cassian nodded, "I think I have painkillers and antiseptic, but that's not enough to fix this."

"You're saying I might _fucking die_ because your med kit is inadequate?" Jai's voice was breathy, but her words still managed to carry some bite to them as her eyes darkened again.

"If we make it back to base on time, no." Cassian answered simply while reaching into the pack for what little supplies he did have to offer. He turned his head toward the cockpit slightly while calling out, "Kay, get us back as fast as you can."

"Is it really wise to bring her to headquarters?" The droid questioned as Cassian moved closer to Jai, holding the painkillers out to her.

"Where and what the hell is headquarters?" She questioned while taking the medication; her expression looked as if it were stuck in one of twisted discomfort.

Another hiss from Cassian as he dug around in the bag - no disinfectant either. This wasn't looking good. Despite that, he still dug out the bandages, though he knew they wouldn't do as much good as they could if he had antiseptic.

"Headquarters is none of your business." Cassian echoed Jai's earlier words back to her; though her energy was progressively growing weaker and weaker, Jai still managed to narrow her eyes suspiciously at the man. She _prayed_ that she wasn't about to be dragged off somewhere awful and alarming by this stranger and his damned droid.

"Hm, that's not very reassuring…" Jai's voice came out far quieter than she had intended. Cassian watched Jai closely as her head started to lull a little, and instinctively he reached for her, knowing that, although her falling asleep could be no problem, it could more likely lead to her body caving to the injury. He rested a hand firmly on the back of Jai's head and lifted it, meeting her lidded eyes.

"You stay awake as long as you can, you hear me?" Jai gave him a tired nod, "Tell me your name."

Silence lingered between them for a few long moments as they stared at one another, "… Jai."

Cassian gave a single, slight nod, "Jai, we're going to Yavin 4."

* * *

Jai wasn't sure if she had passed out or if she had simply become too delirious with pain, because she came to realize she was lying in a hospital bed without any recollection as to how she got there. She awoke groggy and confused, though nonetheless she felt well and without pain despite knowing she had been shot in the stomach. For a long while, she simply lied on the cot, eyeing the room around here, listening to others moving around and chattering softly. She was in a hall that was obviously converted to be some kind of medical wing, with cots lining the wall on both her left and her right. The only other people in the room were, what Jai assumed to be, a medic and a patient at the far end of the room, the patient sitting on the furthest cot while in discussion with the medic.

After spending a few minutes observing the room and recalling the events that led her here, Jai sat up slowly, groaning slightly, though for the time being she was in far less pain than she had anticipated. The supposed doctor spotted her right away, and excused herself from the patient after a moment, approaching Jai who was rotating her head left and right to work out her neck muscles, hearing a chorus of satisfied pops go up her bones. Her eyes watched the medic's approach casually as the patient rose from his seat and slowly left the room.

"It's Jai, isn't it?" The second woman started once she came to a pause at the foot of the cot, the corner of her mouth pulling into a practiced, cordial smile, receiving a nod from Jai, who was now carefully stretching her body to test out the feeling in her abdomen, "I'm Miona. You remember why you're here?"

The question was asked as if Miona already knew the answer, as if she could tell Jai had a relatively clear memory of everything that went down on Cassian's ship. Despite that knowing tone, Jai gave a second nod anyway.

"Some guy and a robot got me shot, and they brought me back here." Jai's voice was scratchy from disuse. Miona accepted the response, hearing the attitude in Jai's tone and knowing it meant the other woman could remember a lot despite saying very little, "So, where I am, and what the hell is this place?"

Miona was, however, surprised by Jai's bluntness, not expecting the woman to jump into questions so quickly. Miona could still see in Jai's dark eyes and hear in her tone that she was tired, but she had enough sense about her to get to the important matters.

"Are you sure you don't want another few minutes?" the medic asked, though she already anticipated the response she was going to get - after working as the head medic for the Rebellion, she had become accustomed to patients waking, rising, and questioning quickly without regard for their condition. The pilots and spies Miona had dealt with through the years quite often sprang back quickly from treatment and didn't like to waste time. It looked as if this woman was going to do the same.

Another shake of Jai's head, "I don't need another few minutes."

Miona gave an accepting nod, taking a seat on the cot next to Jai's, "You bounce back like someone who's been in this position before."

"Well, I've never been _shot_ ," Jai turned to face Miona, moving her legs so they could hang over the edge of the bed. She felt the first noticeable jilt of pain in her abdomen, but it was nothing compared to what she felt aboard the U-Wing, "but a couple broken bones through the years toughen you up a little. How long was I out?"

"Nearly two days," Miona began to explain, "Captain Andor got you here as fast as he could. You're lucky, if it had been much longer the injury might have gotten too severe."

 _Captain Andor_. So, now Jai had a name for the face, though the face in her memory was already a touch fuzzy.

"Lucky me." Jai muttered as her eyes scanned the room again curiously, "And where is here?"

Miona paused and considered - she spoke with Cassian when he dropped off the injured woman, and he hadn't given her any warnings about what she should or shouldn't say to Jai. All he asked was that the woman be supervised once she awoke, and that they return her to the Ring of Kafrene as soon as possible. He also mentioned that she was a thief and that they should be watchful of that habit, but he said nothing to suggest that Miona keep their whereabouts a secret from her.

"Yavin's fourth moon." Jai shook her head with raised brows, obviously unfamiliar with the planet, "You're in the Outer Rim."

Jai mouthed the word _'oh'_ in understanding, eyes becoming a little lighter with both interest and concern - she'd never been this far from home. In fact, she could count the number of times she'd left the Ring of Kafrene on one hand. To say she felt nervous was an understatement. The realization that Jai was on some far off moon surrounded by strangers that she didn't know if she could trust suddenly hit her full force, and her heartbeat picked up an unevenly anxious pace.

Jai's eyes widened with her worry, and her fingers clenched into nervous fists. Miona quickly spoke up, trying to ease the anxiety, "Jai, you're with the Rebellion."

Miona hoped that was the right thing to say. Neither she nor Cassian knew anything about this woman, and for all she knew her statement could potentially worry her patient even more.

Jai's brows knit together curiously, and lucky for them both her unease calmed a little. So, this Andor guy was a rebel - that was certainly better than some of the other ideas Jai had been speculating.

The Rebellion wasn't something Jai had ever paid much mind to, not when she was a kid and not much now. Growing up on the Ring of Kafrene, one became used to the presence of the Empire monitoring the trading post and it's connecting routes, and Jai was raised to worry about herself before worrying about the concerns and needs of a whole. Sure, she knew to be there for her siblings should they ever need, and she knew to help others if she saw that they deserved it, but Jai never thought about the concerns of the entire galaxy. The rest of the galaxy just wasn't on the minds of those from Kafrene, who had learned life wasn't so black and white, had learned to coexist with both the Empire presence and with the rebels that crossed their paths.

Jai was certainly not for the Empire, though she wasn't necessarily sided with the Rebellion either. Being someone that grew up learning the ways of crime made her relatively impartial to the conflict - either way, whether under Empire control or Rebellion restoration, she would still be a criminal.

However, she could appreciate the sentiment of the Rebellion. To Jai, though it sounded as if their cause was rather idealistic, it was something good nonetheless. Sometimes she had caught herself wondering what her life could have been if the Ring of Kafrene wasn't Empire controlled, if the Alliance had knocked them down years ago and rebuilt the galaxy. Would Jai still be a criminal today, perhaps locked behind bars? Or would her life have taken a different route? Jai liked to think that she was supposed to become a slicer no matter who was running the galaxy, but she did believe life wouldn't have been so damn hard on her if the Empire weren't around.

So maybe she was a little more partial to the Rebel Alliance after all.

Jai let out a low sigh, realizing she had a string of questions she wanted to ask, but knew she couldn't bombard Miona with them all at once, "I assume someone's gonna drag me back to Kafrene as soon as you give them the go-ahead?"

Miona nodded, "Captain Andor asked that we get you back as soon as possible."

Jai's lower lip jutted out as she slightly nodded, having expected the answer she was given. Her eyes drifted away from the medic and looked about the room thoughtfully, feeling some kind of tug-of-war going on in her mind. She was far from home and amidst something she couldn't have prepared herself for and yet… she didn't want to leave too soon. Perhaps she could blame it on her curiosity, that irrepressible desire to pull apart and understand every new thing that was presented to her, just as she always did with computers and scramble keys and every other electronic she'd encountered through the years. Here she was with an opportunity to see a rebel base, she couldn't just _leave_ and go back to Kafrene without anything new in her slicing arsenal.

Jai licked her dry lips while turning her keen eyes back to Miona, "Can I look around before I have to go?"

The hesitation was immediately obvious in Miona's expression, "I don't think that's wise…"

"Because you don't know me and can't trust me." Jai said knowingly; after all, if she were a part of a resistance movement, she'd hesitate to let a thief snoop around as well. She gave another sigh through her nose, staring at Miona as she thought for a couple moments, "… My name's Jai'ren Tillian, I was raised in Kafrene for the last eighteen years, and I don't know where I came from before that. I'm one of the only good slicers from the colony… And I like a good glass of Merenzane Gold when I can afford it."

Her attempted humor seemed to work - Jai could see the way the corners of Miona's eyes crinkled in amusement, but she refrained from smiling any larger than a small, cordial smirk.

Jai briefly felt naked with how closely Miona was staring into her eyes, and she could tell that this medic was well-versed in studying people to determine their credibility. Jai stared back, being the type that didn't like to waver her attention whenever she was being watched so closely.

"I thought you were a thief?" Miona finally said, tilting her head curiously. Jai wasn't surprised by the question, though she hadn't expected it to be the first thing brought up.

The corner of her mouth pulled into a lazy grin, "Slicers are just glorified thieves - I've never had the knack for pickpocketing or stealing from shops, but I can transfer credits from anyone's accounts or get into their ships without them ever knowing."

Perhaps that wasn't something to brag about. Jai could see the uncertainty in Miona's eyes, and realized quickly that her statement could lead to a train of thought that involved speculation of what she could do if she got her hands on rebel information.

"Don't assume the worst of me." Jai defended, "I'm not concerned with your information or data, it doesn't serve me any good."

Miona crossed her arms, though not in some kind of authoritative or reprimanding way - unless Jai was mistaken, it looked as if there was almost something chaff and curious to the look the medic was giving her, "So, why slicer? Aren't there other kinds of job opportunities on Kafrene that aren't all criminal?"

Jai smiled, cocking her head while mirroring Miona's posture - she liked this woman. And it looked as if Miona maybe was beginning to like her, as well, "Why the Rebellion? That's technically criminal, too, last time I checked."

Miona could see that there was nothing accusatory in Jai's statement, that Jai wasn't actually expecting her to answer or defend herself. This slicer was sharp.

Jai's eyes continued to shine with levity as she uncrossed her arms and curled her hands around the edge of her cot, leaning forward slightly, "If you want any more of this life story, you'll have to buy me a drink first."

The slight smile pulled at Miona's lips again. Though she most certainly couldn't say she trusted Jai, given that she knew the woman a whole of ten minutes, she could at the very least say she saw the good in her. In all her years of serving the Rebellion and, prior to that, treating medical patients on her home planet, Miona learned how to hone her ability to read people's energy. And Jai's energy in this moment was genuine and without ill-intent.

"Look, Jai, I can't let you go wandering around this place," She started while rising to her feet, " _But_ if I call someone up here to escort you, I need you to promise you won't touch a thing and you won't cause any problems."

"You'd trust the promise of a stranger?" Jai quipped, and after Miona stared at her for another moment the medic turned to begin walking toward her desk.

"I like to give people the benefit of the doubt." Miona answered simply, retrieving a commlink from her desk while shooting Jai another kind look. She then opened a cabinet behind her, revealing Jai's belongings that had been taken off of her upon her arrival, "So?"

Jai continued in good humor, "I don't tend to make promises, but for you I'll be on my best behavior."

Miona nearly laughed as she pulled out Jai's things, "I guess that's the best I'll get."

Jai slowly rose, assessing each movement carefully to ensure she'd be good on her feet - aside from some cramping pain in her abdomen, she felt relatively unharmed. Though, she did realize in that moment that she was a little hungry, but she suspected they'd given her some kind of nourishment while she was out cold - if she had been asleep for nearly two days, Jai knew her body would have demanded food immediately if they had simply left her without nourishment that entire time.

Miona and Jai met each other halfway, the medic watching Jai's movements carefully. She knew the other woman would be fine, after all she received proper attention from the medical team, but Miona's doctoral instinct and worry could never be completely turned off. Many people, after even a day of rest following bacta treatment, were up on their feet again quickly; Jai was fortunate to be one of those types and not someone that awoke feeling groggy or drained from the medical treatment. In all her years, Miona still could never predict who would wake up feeling spry and who would wake up feelings worse.

In one hand, Miona carried Jai's folded coat and all the odds-and-ends that had been stuffed in her pockets, which she held out for Jai to grab, and in the other she had the slicer's old clunky boots, which she set atop the nearest cot. Jai noticed her cap and goggles were missing, but she reckoned they had been forgotten back on Captain Andor's U-Wing.

As Jai went through her belongings carefully to ensure nothing was missing (she let out a nearly pathetically pleased sigh when she saw neither Andor nor Miona had confiscated her scramble key), Miona started speaking to someone over the commlink.

Within minutes, the women were joined by a young Twi'lek male who looked rather confused to have been called down to the medical wing. He introduced himself and told Jai to simply call him 'Abe,' receiving an agreeing nod from the woman, who replied by telling him to simply call her 'Jai.' When Miona explained that she wanted Abe to escort Jai around the base, his expression was questioning and unprepared - he wasn't exactly a babysitter, after all. But, he nonetheless agreed, always happy to do Miona a favor and thankful for the reprieve from sitting at a computer for hours on end.

As Jai and Abe stepped out of the medical wing, he began to explain where it was in relation to everything else on the level - just next door was the briefing room, and down at the opposite end of the hall was access to the barracks and the mess hall. None of that was of any particular interest to Jai, though she didn't immediately say so out loud. No, if she was going to get a tour of a rebel base, she wanted to see their ships and flight deck, wanted to see what kind of technology they had in their command room. But she let Abe take his time showing her around - he had a nearly unsure quality to the way he spoke, as if he wasn't used to talking as much as he was doing. Or maybe it was just odd for him to be giving a stranger a tour of Yavin 4. Whatever the case, Jai refrained from pressing about the things she really wanted to see, at least for now.

"So, Abe, what brought you to the Rebellion?" Jai decided to attempt some conversation as they exited the turbolift after spending about twenty minutes or so on another level; her eyes widened eagerly at the sight of computers and tech stations spread out in front of her.

Abe looked hesitant to answer as Jai turned her excited eyes toward him, and for a short while they were both silent as he considered his answer.

"I was raised in it," he started carefully, his gaze trailing over toward Jai, "My parents were both rebels; they died for the cause a couple years ago. I've stuck around to finish their fight."

 _'That's noble.'_ Jai thought. She wondered if she would have done the same if she lost her guardian to a cause like this.

"What do you do here?" She asked and Abe finally started leading her through the crowd of computers, the other rebels giving them nothing more than mere glances as they passed. Abe looked down at her with curiosity in his eyes, wondering if she actually cared or if she was simply filling the silence; he couldn't tell.

Abe came to a pause at an empty workstation, lifting his arm toward it, "I'm a technician, I help manage our communications."

Jai gave a slight smile - briefly, she suspected that maybe Miona had called up Abe because he had a similar skill to Jai and hoped that would be something they could connect over.

"Must be demanding - you do encryption and data recovery?" Jai suspected those were areas he had to be skilled in if he was taking care of rebel communications - she was sure their channels were heavily protected and monitored at all hours of the day.

Abe nodded, "Some Imperial decryption as well when it's brought to me." Though he was still unsure of Jai, he liked the opportunity to talk to someone else about what he did. Abe wasn't usually the guy that got much attention, no one in Signal Intelligence did. Despite the appreciation all the departments and organizations in the Rebellion got, sometimes he felt as if his particular area of expertise was occasionally overlooked. Or maybe it was just everyone overlooking Abe specifically.

"I do decryption, too, among other things." Jai shared with another grin, "Bet I could give some of you a run for your money."

The corners of Abe's eyes wrinkled, though not necessarily in amusement, but rather in curiosity - did he not recognize the humor in Jai's delivery? Just as she began to wonder if she should elaborate and explain herself, Abe spoke inquisitively.

"You think so?"

Was that challenge in his tone that Jai heard? As she gave a rascally smile, Abe allowed some amusement to cross his expression.

"Miona said you were a _slicer_." His tone suggested that he was suspicious of the woman, which was a fair judgment. Jai was used to codebreakers having a bad reputation, though she'd done nothing with her line of work to counter said prejudice.

"And a damn good one." She replied confidently, seeing the way Abe's eyes narrowed with intrigue and perhaps even eagerness, and the expression made Jai realize just how young he was. If she had to guess, he was even younger than her twenty-three years, barely an adult and already an accomplished technician. For a brief moment, Jai recognized her own brother's curiosity in this young twi'lek's eyes.

"Do you think you're better with computers than some of us?" Abe sounded mildly challenging, to which Jai continued to grin.

"I don't want to assume, but…" Did Abe just smile back at her? He was too quick to straighten out his expression for Jai to say for sure, but his eyes still looked on with intrigue.

Abe looked away as a thought struck him, his stare washing over the room full of rebels in consideration of whatever just crossed his mind. Jai watched him patiently until he finally looked back down at her.

"Why exactly are you here?" His question wasn't what Jai expected.

"It's a little… complicated, but I was shot, and brought here for medical attention." Abe studied Jai's face while digesting the answer.

"But why did you want to see the base? Miona didn't mention you were a part of the Rebellion."

"I'm not."

"Then why so curious?" Jai would hand it to Abe, he was intelligent, though she should have expected no less of a rebel technician.

"I'm not trying to collect information, if that's what you're assuming." Jai defended, though there was no malice in her tone.

Abe shook his head, "I didn't assume that."

Without any further elaboration, he walked around the workstation and rested his palms atop the back of it's chair, eyes looking down at the computer before turning back up to Jai, something mildly akin to mischief flashing in his eyes.

"Show me what you can do." Though some of his seriousness lingered, Abe's expression once again showed that youthful curiosity, the youthful desire for friendly rivalry.

Jai's brows rose, "Really? You think you can handle being beat by some slicer from a shitty colony?"

Again, Jai saw Abe nearly smile, though this time it was more obvious, "It's not a competition, I just want to see what this slicer can do."

Jai hummed curiously, but nonetheless rounded the desk, Abe pulling out the chair before stepping back. As Jai took a seat, she dug her scramble key out of one of her pockets.

This scramble key was her baby. Jai had slaved over perfecting it, customizing the device with various parts and equipment that she'd acquired through the years. The key had started out as a rather standard scrambler, but as Jai learned more and more about the art of slicing and the equipment involved, she was able to build up her key to not only open door locks, but to bypass alarms, unlock computers, and decipher encrypted data. Jai would willingly give up everything else she owned (which wasn't all that much) so long as it meant her scramble key was always safely tucked into her pocket.

Abe gave an appraising look to the scramble key, not immediately recognizing what it was, though once Jai slid the screen to the side away from the handle portion of the tool, giving the device the vague silhouette of a gun, he realized it was slicer equipment.

"I'm not trying to get into any trouble here," Jai started, spinning the chair around to look up at Abe, "so gimme something that won't turn the entire Rebellion against me."

Abe paused and considered - he didn't want to give her any basic tasks to test her skills, he wanted to see her struggle. He settled on telling Jai to find a classified file. He only gave her one bit of information to use at a starting point - the file had his name somewhere in it. He hadn't told Jai his full name, nor did he give any important dates or other information to go off of. He wasn't just testing her slicer abilities, he wanted to see how she would rationalize which file was the one he was looking for.

Jai managed that task with impressive speed. So, Abe gave her another one.

And then another.

And one more. Each increasing in difficulty. By the last two tasks Abe could see how Jai was struggling, yet she nonetheless eventually managed to complete what was asked of her.

Abe was impressed - she was certainly on par with many of the other techs here, and undeniably better than some as well. So, the Ring of Kafrene didn't only produce underwhelling and laughable criminals after all.

Despite the fact that Abe hadn't given Jai another task, she started tapping on her scramble key again, and yet, Abe had begun to let his guard down, not evening thinking to question what she was doing now. During the challenges he had given her, Abe had pulled over a second chair, sitting back in it comfortably as he watched her work.

"So, who's that Endor guy? Or was it Anders?" Jai questioned, not looking up from her key.

"Captain _Andor_ , the one that brought you here?" Jai smirked mischievously at the reply.

"Yeah, that one." She replied, though it was noncommittal, as if she were already disengaging from the topic of the captain, continuing to work on her scramble key.

Abe paused at her expression, suspicious of it. And as he opened his mouth to question her, Jai glanced over with a satisfied look, tapping one last time on her scramble key before something changing on the screen of Abe's computer caught his eye.

They both looked at the screen, Jai pulling her seat closer and leaning in to look at the computer studiously, meanwhile Abe's eyes widened with worry. She pulled up files about Cassian Andor. Abe looked between Jai and the screen, momentarily too flabbergasted to say anything.

 _Cassian_. Jai mulled over the name for a moment before she continued reading the profile and records the Rebellion had on him. He'd been one of the fastest to rise through the ranks, the youngest captain in the Alliance's Intelligence branch. Jai's expression furrowed in shock upon reading that he became a child soldier at six-years-old, engaging in his first combat during the Clone Wars. As she recalled what years the Clone Wars happened, she realized he had to be younger than he looked when they met aboard his U-Wing - Jai easily mistook him for a man in his thirties, but as she did the math now, she realized he was only about twenty-five. It must have been the way he carried himself or the knowing, mature sharpness of his eyes that made the man seem older beyond his years - who knew what he'd done and what he'd seen in his youth to age him so. He had the mind of someone who had to learn things the hard way, the attitude of a man that knew what he wanted and knew what he believed in. And Jai wasn't too proud to admit his rap sheet was impressive.

* * *

Since his return to Yavin 4 nearly two days ago, Cassian had been far too preoccupied to even think about the woman he brought back with him; in fact, he had quickly forgotten about her as he got caught up in other tasks and duties. Aside from himself, another intelligence captain had returned from a mission about the same time that Cassian had, and they were both a part of a meeting with the various higher-ups to go over all the new intel that had been recently acquired. Another officer had questioned Cassian regarding his unexpected cargo, but once he gave everyone a brief explanation of what happened, the subject was dropped and forgotten.

Cassian and the other captain had gone to work trying to plan the next mission based off of new intel regarding a potential Empire database complex in the Mid Rim - they wanted to assemble a team to go check it out as soon as possible. The mission was to be headed by the second captain, Cassian already having another assignment lined up for himself that he had to prioritize. The team for the Mid Rim investigation had left on the second day of Cassian being back from his trip to the Ring of Kafrene.

Cassian hadn't thought to go to the medical wing to discuss Jai with Miona, hadn't thought to check in and see if she was still hanging around or if someone had already brought her back to the Ring. He was too caught up in his work to even spare a thought for the unplanned passenger from aboard his U-Wing.

Cassian was on his way from the hangar, where he had been checking up on repairs to his ship, to the command room in search of General Draven to go over some last minute data. He stepped out of the turbolift among the various control center technicians, inattentively excusing himself from an unimportant conversation with one of the techs as he started heading for the command room. Just as they usually did, the technicians scattered about barely spared Cassian a glance, too caught up in their own work. That was one thing Cassian always appreciated about the techs - they had laser focus that couldn't be rivaled. Where pilots and spies liked to strike up conversation and allowed their attention to be diverted far more easily when they weren't away on missions, those in Signal Intelligence and the other high-tech jobs rarely became distracted while they were at their desks.

Typically, Cassian was just as focused as the technicians once he was on this floor, as being up here in Command and Control meant business, and yet today Cassian allowed his gaze to roam the room as he walked through it. Maybe it was the noise, as everyone seemed to be louder than usual, or maybe it was some instinctive feeling, as if there was something to be seen that was out of place. Whatever the case, Cassian's gait slowed a little to allow his eyes to search the room, observing the various techs for seconds longer than he normally would.

Cassian suddenly felt as if a weight had dropped in his stomach when his eyes fell on a pair a few rows away from where he walked, the two hunched over a computer screen. He was shocked he had cared enough to even recognize the woman's face, but it was a good thing he did, because _Jai_ had no business wandering the headquarters control room.

Cassian's eyes darkened as his brow furrowed, turning to begin marching in their direction. Jai had a mischievous smile on her face, one he wanted to wipe right off; beside her, the Twi'lek tech, whose name was escaping Cassian at this moment, looked at her with caution, saying something that appeared to be ignored by Jai. Cassian couldn't believe Miona had let down her guard and allowed Jai to leave the medical wing - he'd have to discuss this with the doctor later.

As Cassian approached, Abe finally took notice of him, inhaling sharply and jumping up from his seat quickly upon spotting the irate look on the captain's face. Jai sensed the distress in Abe's reaction, finally peeling her gaze away from the computer and up to her new company, before following his line of sight. She, too, inhaled through her nose as her eyes widened, feeling her posture stiffen, but she tried as best she could to hide her anxious surprise at seeing Cassian.

" _What_ is she doing here?" Cassian's voice was sharp as he halted on the opposite side of the desk, clenched fist pressing down on it as he leaned forward. Despite Abe being the tallest of the three, somehow Cassian seemed like the largest person in the room, "Do you _know_ that she is a thief and she was supposed to be brought back to her colony? What the hell is she doing on your computer?"

"Captain Andor, Doctor Tif asked me to show her around," Abe quickly defended under the intensity of Cassian's stare.

" _Why_?" his eyes rotated over to Jai, whose jaw was clenched tightly, doing her best to mask the concern in her black eyes.

"I couldn't leave without getting a tour." Jai quipped with defensive humor, also standing. Though Cassian still had a number of inches of height on her, Jai felt better to be facing him on her feet. Cassian dipped his head to inspect the computer, causing another wave of vexation to wash through him upon seeing his own named repeated multiple times on the display. His dark eyes met Jai's again.

"Are you trying to spy on me?" He spoke lowly, to which the corner of Jai's mouth pulled up despite the hostility between them.

"I just wanted to know more about my savior." Her tone was jeering, an obvious defense against stress and confrontation.

"Or you're a spy collecting intel." Cassian countered, sharply turning his head back to Abe, "And you're just sitting here _letting_ her go through classified files like this? What kind of a fool are you?"

As Abe opened his mouth nervously to reply, Jai took a step in front of him, resting her fists atop the desk in a stance that mirrored the captain's, "Watch your tone."

Cassian was taken aback by her audacity to confront him that way and by her willingly to defend this rebel that she barely knew. His anger grew even hotter from her counter.

"I'd watch yours if I were you." He replied slowly.

"Captain Andor," Abe's tone was nervous, but he gulped loudly and pushed through it, "she's a slicer, I just wanted to see what she could do, I didn't mean for her to pull up any information on you. It was just in fun."

 _A slicer_. Jai had neglected to mention that when she claimed herself to be a thief. Cassian's glare locked onto Abe with appalled shock.

"You let a slicer onto one of our computers?" His voice rose an octave, and by now a couple of the other technicians had taken notice of the confrontation going on, trying to slyly eavesdrop on it.

"Captain, she's talented." Abe seemed to grow a little braver, upset by the aggression aimed his way, "She's even better than some of us."

"That means nothing." Cassian hissed, whipping his harsh eyes back over to Jai. She met the glare head on, though Cassian could see that there was still a stressed uncertainty in her eyes; if he were someone else, he very well could have been fooled by this bluff, by this show of aggression and authority. But he wasn't someone else, and he could see right through her, could see that she had to muster up so much strength just to be glaring back into his eyes.

As Abe looked between the two, his nerves spiked high, he wasn't sure what came over him - maybe he was trying to diffuse the situation, maybe he had come to like Jai, maybe he was just desperate. Whatever the case, none of them were prepared for what he said next.

"I think she could be a good asset to us." Cassian and Jai's heads turned toward him at nearly the exact same time, Cassian prepared to argue while Jai looked with surprised curiosity, "Captain, we could use another slicer on the team, they bring a different skill set than the rest of the techs."

"Absolutely not." Cassian bit back.

"That's not up to you, though, is it?" Jai questioned harshly, eyeing the man again, drawing his attention back to her. Cassian inhaled deeply through his nose as his jaw tightened, his glare unblinking.

"You don't just join the Rebellion as some kind of cop out, we don't need people that don't care about the cause." He huffed with unamused mockery, "If this cause was important to you, you would have already said so. You don't get to use it as some means of surviving another day."

"And how do you know it's not important to me?" Jai questioned, though even she was asking herself that exact question. She didn't care about the Rebellion, did she? She had been content, albeit a little bored, back on the Ring of Kafrene, barely spared more than a thought to either the Empire or the rebels. Why now did she suddenly feel the need to argue, why now did she seem to convince herself that suddenly she cared about the matters of the galaxy at large?

Jai didn't like being challenged. Despite the fact that confrontations such as this one made her anxious, and she did her best to avoid them, a stubborn part of her couldn't help but try to stand her ground. Whether or not Cassian was right in his judgment of her didn't matter - what mattered was that he doubted her worth. And in this moment she wasn't going to simply back down and tolerate it.

"I do what I have to to survive, that's what you learn living on Kafrene. Just because I'm a slicer doesn't mean I lack morality. If anything, I value it more than the average person _because_ of how I grew up. _Don't_ think yourself better than me, _Cassian Andor_."

Cassian couldn't help but pause despite his instinct to keep arguing with her. He wouldn't say she made any valid point, nor would he admit she was right in any way, yet he nonetheless had a brief, _brief_ moment of consideration toward her argument.

A part of Cassian knew he was being unreasonable. Perhaps it was his exhaustion or his pride or his stubbornness. The Rebellion had accepted people from all walks of life so long as they were willing to fight for the cause; Cassian had no reason to think Jai was any different from so many of the others among him.

It must have been personal, given that he had found her aboard his ship and attempting to steal; finding her here in the control room rifling through information on him didn't help her case either. Cassian was latched onto his upset from their first meeting, and that frustration combined with his current state of stress, giving way to an unnecessary level of anger in him.

Abe suggested that the discussion be brought before the council, before the Chancellor and the other heads of the Alliance. And Cassian knew Abe was right, knew that it was pointless to argue with this woman in the middle of the control center, knew that he just needed to step back and relax. He had far more important things to worry about than this woman.

As the trio came down from the high of their dispute, Cassian vowed that he wouldn't let himself trust the thieving slicer.

* * *

Disdain [dis- **deyn** , dih- **steyn** ]

_verb_

1\. to look upon or treat with contempt; despise; scorn

2\. to think unworthy of notice, response, etc.; consider beneath oneself

_noun_

1\. a feeling of contempt for anything regarded as unworthy; haughty contempt; scorn


	2. II: Agreement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, long time no post. I’ve been trying to finish the last two chapters of this fic, which have been giving me a lot of trouble, so I haven’t wanted to post anything in the meantime. But I realized how damn long its been since I’ve updated thanks to a lovely review I got over on FF, so time for another chapter while I continue to work at finishing this fic!  
> Also, for anyone who's interested, check out my tumblr mand-hoe-lorian for thirsty star wars content!

Jai Tillian maneuvered around pilots, spies, and fellow technicians as she made her way across the hangar at Yavin 4 headquarters. Over one shoulder was a purse of technical equipment, and in the opposite hand she cradled a datapad close to her chest. Her strides were long and quick as she aimed to get to the east end of the haggar, scheduled to run a diagnostics test on one of the gunships that had recently returned from a mission; apparently the computer wasn’t processing as it should, resulting in multiple issues during its last voyage.

Jai’s whole morning was booked with busy work, jumping from ship to ship, running tests or upgrading software on each one she entered. She fell a little behind schedule during her last test on a corvette, as the pilot was being far too distracting the entire time, and Jai hoped that this next one she had to deal with on the gunship wouldn’t interrupt her focus.

Jai had been with the Alliance for a little over a month, and yet it still seemed odd to say so. She had been accepted in by the council and the other technicians that she had met thus far, had spent nearly every meal sat with Miona, and had been between the control room and the hangar nearly every day learning. Yet it didn’t feel completely real, it felt as if any day now she’d be told play time was over and she’d be sent back to the Ring of Kafrene.

Jai didn’t know entirely what her thoughts were on the matter of the Rebellion versus the Empire, though she wouldn’t dare say so out loud to anyone here. Perhaps she should feel wrong for being with the rebels while trying to confront her own political doubts, should feel as if she were simply faking it to finally experience some new excitement in her life, but she didn’t feel wrong for it. Jai knew she agreed with what the Rebel Alliance was fighting for, she simply didn’t have the same passion and intensity that everyone else seemed to. And there was nothing wrong with lacking fervor in her personality, was there?

Jai had never been a particularly zealous or excitable person. Those that knew her often noted that she had an incredibly relaxed and flat way about her, verging on coming off indifferent and disinterested. It’s how she had always been, not by choice or by force, but simply by nature. She rarely became too passionate, too angry, or too sad. Her anger was perhaps the most easily triggered of the three, after all it was always the easiest emotion for anyone to fall into so long as their buttons were pushed just right, but even then her anger never seemed to come off as aggressive as others’ and it never lasted very long at all.

Maybe from a young age Jai had learned not to invest herself in emotions. Back on the Ring of Kafrene, her life was relatively uneventful, save for the occasions in her youth when she and her siblings got caught causing trouble. Despite the vast array of people that traveled to and lived in the colony, Kafrene was actually quite mundane, being particularly monotonous to a child who’s intellect led her to quickly becoming bored of the people and things around her.

As an adult, that quality in Jai hadn’t changed. It wasn’t that she thought herself too smart or too ambitious for Kafrene, in fact Jai often found herself to be of plain intelligence and of lackluster drive. Kafrene was simply too repetitive and predictable after seventeen years of growing up there. That’s why she could come off nearly cocky about her slicer skills -- codebreaking had become one of the only things that could hold Jai’s interest, and so she came as close as she could to perfecting those skills given her limited resources. 

The one thing Jai could say genuinely excited her was building new equipment or upgrading her scramble key in some way. The stimulation and excitement of finally getting a successful result after trial and error of testing out a new piece of tech was virtually unrivaled by anything else. Sure, there was a distinct joy she use to feel with her family in her youth, there was a certain thrill whenever she was working on challenging slicing project, and an undeniable sensation when she, on rare occasions, engaging with someone else sexually, but for Jai nothing really compared to spending hours alone at her messy workbench, fussing with her scramble key until she perfected whatever she was trying to achieve.

Some of that excitement she still felt here on Yavin 4, but the work she was given had yet to be particularly stimulating. As a newbie, Jai was often shadowing other rebels to better understand what the technicians did at base in every relevant department. A number of the techs were trained for field work, but the majority that Jai had been working with so far stayed behind at headquarters, putting their skills towards encryption and decryption, repairs and upgrades. Jai had made it known that she’d be interested in training as a field tech, but it seemed that she may not get the opportunity yet, as no one she spoke to showed much enthusiasm for the idea. Jai hoped that she didn’t grow bored too quickly -- she was far too tired of constantly becoming bored by things, and she hoped being with the Rebellion would supply her with the stimulation she needed to stay invested.

Jai finished her job on the X4 gunship with relative ease, finding the glitch in the software and quickly remedying the problem. As she exited the ship, she looked down at the datapad to see if she’d gotten any messages about the next ship that needed her attention, but she didn’t receive any. So, she started back toward the main workstation, knowing that surely enough she would be called to something else soon.

As Jai rounded a large freighter a voice called to her to step out of the way, to which she did promptly while looking up. Two other technicians were passing by with a large equipment cart between them, and Jai did a double-take at the content inside.

Was that Cassian Andor’s droid?

As the technicians passed her, Jai asked them to stop, looking at the KX that was currently shut down.

“Shit, he’s seen better days.” She remarked while leaning over the equipment cart -- the droid’s right leg looked as if it were hanging onto his torso by a thread, it's usually pristine metal armor dented, scuffed, and stained, and there was definitely some kind of heavy damage to the back of it’s head, though Jai didn’t reach out to get a better look at it, “What happen here?”

One of the techs shrug, “Hell if we know, Gar’s over there right now trying to figure it out.”

He motioned behind himself with his head, Jai’s eyes following the indicated direction until she finally spotted Cassian and the head tech, Gar, standing just outside of the U-Wing. Jai stepped out of the way, and the two technicians continued to the workroom without saying another word.

Since their meeting and quarrel last month, Jai and Cassian had hardly seen one another, and neither had any intentions to approach first. The day he’d found her on his ship was still rather clear in Jai’s head; when she recalled the way he was very nearly kind to her, she was puzzled, especially given that after that he’d only been dismissive and even rude. Jai had heard a lot of good things about Cassian, heard other rebels sing his praise with admiration. Jai could tell he was a good man with good intentions; but, she pieced together quickly, he was _incredibly_ passionate, and in that way, the two were a stark contrast. Perhaps even that first day they met Cassian could sense her general indifference towards everything, even as she sat on the floor of his ship with a gunshot wound in her stomach.

Maybe that was why he’d been so adamant that there was no place for her in the Rebellion. He was aggressively passionate, and she was aggressively impassive.

There was no reason for either to consider resolving their dispute from those first couple of days -- they worked different departments, Cassian was often away on jobs, and Jai was still too new to the Rebellion to be given any work of value. Their paths weren’t meant to cross again any time soon, and yet, something told Jai she was supposed to see K-2SO and, as a result, go looking for the droid’s partner.

Jai stayed planted where she stood, observant eyes watching the conversation going on between Cassian and Gar as a pair of agents stepped off of Cassian’s ship behind them. Jai could tell even from here that Cassian was exasperated, the look on his face and the upset way he moved his arms being a dead giveaway. Jai tilted her head slightly as she studied him -- did Cassian make a habit of going off on people like this?

No, Jai recognized quickly that he wasn’t yelling at Gar, nor did it seem that his anger was even directed to the other man. He was upset about whatever the hell happened to K-2SO.

For a couple of seconds, Jai didn’t even realize she was walking toward the pair, seemingly pulled by some curious invisible thread. And once she became aware of what she was doing she didn’t hesitate or pause to consider what exactly she intended to do once she got there. She was curious about what happened to the droid, and she was still holding onto some of that curiosity about the captain as well.

Jai was finally within earshot of the pair, though still far enough away that Cassian had yet to take notice of her.

“I’m supposed to be in Dennaskar by tomorrow, I _need_ Kay with me.” Cassian insisted, and now that she was closer Jai could recognize that it wasn’t just upset in his expression, but also worry and concern for the droid, “Gar, is there any way you can speed up the repairs?”

Gar shook his head, “Cassian, this is at least a two day repair job, and that’s not even considering any work we may need to do if there’s been any serious damage to his software.”

Jai stole a glance back toward the techs’ workbench, spotting K-2SO being brought back into the workshop where more serious repairs were handled. She turned forward again and walked the short distance to the men, Gar spotting her first as she began to speak. 

“So, what the hell happened to him?” She asked casually while jerking her thumb in the direction the droid disappeared in, looking between the men briefly before her eyes settled on Cassian. His expression seemed to harden just a little, which didn’t go unnoticed by Jai; so, he was still holding onto some kind of grudge against her.

“Ran into some hostiles on a job.” Cassian answered simply, knowing there wasn’t need to elaborate. Despite the fact that there were four other rebels with him and Kay on that mission, somehow they were still unprepared. At least no one was seriously injured aside from the droid. Cassian looked back to Gar, “You’re certain it’ll take two days?”

“Or more.”

“Could be three if that damage to his head is as bad as it looks.” Jai added, and, though it was subtle, both men looked at her as if her contribution was unwanted.

“Great…” Cassian muttered while crossing his arms. He looked away from the technicians, taking a deep breath as his eyes searched the hangar as if somewhere there was an answer to a question that he hadn’t even asked. Jai watched with a slight tilt to her head before turning her focus back over to Gar.

“I can help with K-2, if you need it.” She offered, interested to see what made the reprogrammed Imperial droid tick, “I haven’t done a lot of droid work, but if you need an extra hand I’d love to see what you’re doing.”

Gar was considered the resident droid expert, among other things, who trained all of the newbies that showed any interest in droid mechanics. He could handle both the external repairs as well as internal repairs in droids’ chips, dataframes, and keys, and he did so better than anyone else in the Alliance.

To Jai’s suggestion, he shook his head, answering dismissively, “My team’s good right now, Tillian.” She gave an accepting nod, though she was mildly disappointed by the answer. As Jai started to look down, she noticed that Cassian had returned his eyes to her watchfully, “I need to get started on Kay; I’ll ask around, see who can go with you to Dennaskar.”

“No one is as good as Kay.” Cassian replied matter-of-factly, and Gar’s expression suggested he thought the same, though he made no sound of agreement.

“You know you can’t do the job alone.”

Cassian knew that to be true, but there was no need to verbalize that. With one last look between the captain and Jai, Gar turned and began in the direction of his workshop.

Jai felt a sinking feeling in her stomach almost immediately, realizing she was standing here with Cassian on her own. Despite all the activity going on around them in the hangar, it felt as if there was some kind of bubble muting out all of the outside noise; Jai’s back became a little stiff as she immediately felt a tension grow between them.

“Where’s Dennaskar?” She asked simply as she looked past Cassian and toward his ship, assessing its appearance -- whatever troubles they had encountered on their last mission luckily hadn’t reached his ship, or the damage was so minor that Jai didn’t notice it.

“Mid Rim, Manda Sector.” Cassian answered, his tone flat and indifferent towards her, knowing there was no need for aggression; something about Jai may still have rubbed him the wrong way, but he’d gotten past any of the upset he had towards her, at least for the moment.

“And what’s there?” Jai’s tone, too, sounded somewhat detached; despite being able to get under her skin, Cassian also seemed to have this ability to make her nervous without doing a damned thing. For a few long, stiff moments he didn’t reply -- the tension was slowly growing thicker.

Cassian spun on his heel to face his ship, looking up at it with his arms crossed for a few seconds longer, “There’s a lab that supplies the Empire with vehicles and weapons. Kay was supposed to go in and steal data about their recent supply; now I have to figure out another way to get the information without him.”

Cassian started walking back toward his ship, and with a furrow of her brow, Jai followed just a couple steps behind.

Stealing data? Jai could do that in her sleep; she knew a number of other technicians here could do the exact same thing. She could see the advantage of sending K-2SO in to take care of it, given that he was a droid and could probably blend in with the rest of the Imperial security team at this laboratory, but Cassian could still get the job done if he brought in a well-rounded technician. Or…

“Sounds like you could use a slicer.” Jai’s tone finally sounded eager with suggestion, and Cassian faltered only a half-step before continuing, his head tilting slightly in her direction curiously. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was suggesting, and Cassian scoffed at the idea of it.

“If you’re suggesting I take you, the answer is _no_.” Cassian spoke firmly and nearly mocking while stepping into his U-Wing, looking at the supplies that were left behind by the rest of his team. Jai paused to lean in the doorframe, crossing her arms as her brow furrowed slightly. When Cassian looked back toward her, his eyes were authoritative and dismissive. Without saying a word, he made it quite clear he didn’t trust Jai.

She shrugged her shoulders while rolling her eyes, “And why not? You need a good tech person, and I need field training.”

“I’m not here to train some careless slicer.” Cassian’s condescending tone caused Jai’s eyes to harden as she sucked in her cheeks in annoyance. What was it about this captain that managed to upset her _far_ too easily?

Cassian turned his back to her again, picking up the supply bag left on the floor before brushing past Jai and walking across the hangar. Once again, Jai was right on his heels.

Jai continued in an accusatory tone, “What’s your problem with me?” Cassian barely spared a glance back at her, “Is it the fact that I’m a slicer? Or because I talk back to you? Or are you just bitter that I’m here?”

Cassian’s eyes hardened as he scoffed at her again, “You tried to steal from me, you broke into private files about me, you joined this Rebellion because you were  _ bored _ , and you continue to show very little interest in the cause you’re here for.”

Jai huffed as they reached a supply table, her lips pulling back in an unamused sneer. Cassian dropped his bag a little too roughly atop the table as he looked to see what he needed to stock up on, “I think you’re just intent on not liking me.”

“And if I am?” He questioned, looking at her briefly with judgmental eyes, “Why does it matter to you?”

The faintest of smirks seemed to ghost over Cassian’s lips, as if pleased that he turned this back around on Jai, who was currently staring at him with an expression that suggested she herself was mulling over that exact question. Cassian silently returned to filling the bag before slinging it over his shoulder and beginning to retreat back to his U-Wing, thinking he’d put a pause to Jai’s pursuit.

“Andor!” He heard from behind him less than a minute later. His steps nearly stuttered, sighing while his eyes rolled back into his head in annoyance -- it looked like Jai was a little more stubborn than he’d given her credit for. Cassian heard her footsteps jogging up behind him, and he refused to look down at her once she’d reached his side, “ _ Look _ , just set aside whatever this issue is and take me to Dennaskar.”

Cassian was tempted to question her, but kept his mouth shut while continuing to his ship. He could feel Jai looking up at him expectantly, but he kept his eyes forward.

“How many other techs do you know that could do the job properly? You were gonna have K-2 hack into their computers and download information, right?  _ I _ can do that, my tools work nearly as quick as a droid can, sometimes even quicker.”

Cassian continued to bite his tongue. But apparently Jai didn’t take well to that, because after a few moments she quickly stepped up in front of him, eyes hardening with resolve.

“ _ Don’t _ ignore me.” Cassian’s brows rose in surprise at her tone, but the rest of his expression made no show of the reaction.

“Would you rather we go on arguing?” He countered.

“ _ Please _ let me do the job -- no one here is willing to give me decent jobs because they still see me as a newbie.”

“Because you  _ are _ .” Cassian replied firmly, “Being good with computers does not automatically mean they’ll throw you into complex jobs -- you have to work your way up. You’d know how that works if you’d ever had a real job.”

Jai was ready to argue back, but managed to stop herself and take a deep breath, trying to calm down the upset that had begun to rise in her. Her tone was calm again as she spoke, “I’ll have you know, I did have a real job.”

Cassian’s face unexpectedly pulled into a look of amusement, though there was mockery to it and doubt in his tone, “Really?”

“Yes.” Jai replied simply, putting no effort into trying to convince the captain, knowing it to be a pointless endeavor. Cassian gave a slight hum before stepping around her and continuing the short trek to his U-Wing. As he expected, he could hear Jai behind him, “You said you need to be in Dennaskar by tomorrow -- if you take me, you don’t have to worry about being behind schedule because you had to find someone. Just take me on this  _ one _ job, and you’ll never have to deal with me again.”

Cassian replaced his supply bag to where it belonged, turning around to look at Jai as he crossed his arms. One of his brows was raised as he stared into her face -- this was  _ fascinating _ . He didn’t expect Jai to show such an interest in anything given her track record. Despite the fact that Cassian had avoided interacting with Jai since her arrival here, he nonetheless had asked about her on occasion, curious to hear about this slicer that was so obviously misplaced in the Rebellion. He asked that tech friend of hers, Abe, about how she acted and he asked Gar how she performed -- Cassian interpreted from both responses that she was indifferent to this job. She never seemed to discuss the cause with anyone, even if someone asked her about it, and she seemed to approach her assignments with boredom. Maybe Abe and Gar misinterpreted her, or maybe it was Cassian that misinterpreted their descriptions. Either way, the insistence Jai showed to be a part of this mission opposed the profile Cassian had been building on her in his head.

Maybe she was more invested in the cause than she let on. Maybe she was just bored out of her mind here on base.

“Why do you want to go?” Cassian finally asked, though he no longer spoke with venom or mockery. His question came across curious and, dare Jai say, actually interested to hear what kind of answer she’d give him. Even his expression lost some of it’s harshness as he awaited her reply. And it was as if that change in his tone allowed some of Jai’s tension to dispel, because she was suddenly able to think a little more calmly and slowly, to actually consider for herself why she wanted to go on this mission.

She was quiet for a little while, arms hanging at her sides as she tried to find the right words, “I need to prove myself.” Cassian’s brows briefly rose as a silent instruction to continue, his interest still held, “The only way these people will take me seriously is if I do a field mission. No one wants to give me anything more than busy work because they doubt what I can do.”

“And do you?” Jai gave him a confused look at the question that sprung from his lips, “Doubt yourself?”

Jai laughed through her nose as she smirked, answering surely, “No.”

Cassian gave a single nod, uncrossing his arms as he turned toward the steps into the cockpit, though he didn’t make a move to ascend them just yet. He stood paused in consideration, looking down at the floor while mulling over Jai’s explanation. The young technician stared at him patiently, though she was certain he’d tell her any second now to go back up to the control room to fuss with her computers.

“Get whatever you need.” Cassian finally spoke, looking back to Jai, “Tell Gar where you’re going, and be back here in half an hour.”

Jai’s eyes grew large and alight with excitement, her mouth pulling into a small, surprised smile -- Cassian nearly made a face at the expression, not expecting such an obvious reaction from this woman who was either irritatingly neutral or simply angry. Jai gave a nod and spun on her heel quickly, barely refraining from running across the hangar toward the turbolift.

* * *

Jai sat in the U-Wing’s copilot seat, her legs pulled up for her heels to rest on the edge of the chair, using her knees as a place to hold her datapad. She was reading up on Dennaskar and the Santhe Corporations laboratory, digging through all the data the Alliance had collected on them. In the seat beside her, Cassian’s eyes seemed entirely focused on the vast space around them, his expression giving away nothing to his thoughts on their mission or on the woman that tagged along with him. The only tell that he was not entirely invested in his new mission partner was the way his lips looked to be tight with tension.

Not far from the Santhe lab was the city of Juspus, which housed the planet’s largest starport. Cassian informed Jai that he had a contact in Juspus that would meet him at the port to supply them with Santhe uniforms and a secure way to get into the lab; Jai, having grown up learning to be wary of others, found herself wondering if the contact was someone they could trust, but she refrained from vocalizing her doubts.

“What data am I looking for when we get there?” Jai asked as she continued to slide through the information on her screen.

“Santhe rolled out a new series of gunships for the Empire recently, but we think that may have been a cover for something.”

“And what makes us think that?” Jai rolled her head lazily on the head rest to glance at Cassian.

Upon feeling her eyes watching him, Cassian briefly looked back at Jai, “Santhe is the Empire’s largest supplier of ships and weapons. On a recent mission another captain got word that the Empire may be working on something new unlike any of their usual weapons -- if that’s the case, Santhe is almost surely involved.”

Jai pushed out her chin slightly as she mulled over his reply before looking back down to her datapad, “So, you want to get your hands on all the files relating to their newest series to see if there’s information hidden in them.” Her brows knit together as she considered that, “What if we just… took all of Santhe’s data?”

Confusion pulled at Cassian’s brow as he turned his eyes to the woman again, looking for clarification, “All of it?”

She gave a brief nod while meeting Cassian’s eyes again, “If they have something to do with a new secret weapon, what makes you think that information is solely disguised or hidden in their recent gunship files? It could be somewhere else in their database. And I doubt we’ll have the time to sift through all of the information while we’re there, it’s too risky to waste that kind of time, so what if we just download all of it to my drive?”

Cassian stared at her quietly for a few moments -- he was nearly begrudging to admit it was a good idea. If he had Kay with him, Cassian knew the droid would have been able to latch onto the appropriate information in Santhe’s system and get out of there quickly. Cassian hadn’t yet considered that even a talented slicer couldn’t perform that task the way a droid could.

“You think you can do that? And quickly?” He questioned, sounding hopeful, maybe even eager about her plan.

“I can do it, I just need you to make sure I have the time.” There was a seriousness in Jai’s eyes that Cassian hadn’t seen before, though really his two previous encounters with her weren’t much of a basis for comparison. He was sure Jai wanted to look knowing in her seriousness, but Cassian could tell it was worry that he saw hidden in her gaze, “They have to have an archive computer of some kind, and where there’s an archive there’s someone managing it. I need you to keep them occupied long enough for me to get into their system and copy everything out of the archive and to my drive.”

“You sound like you’ve done this before.” Cassian’s eyes narrowed, wondering what kind of jobs Jai had done back on Kafrene to give her this kind of thoughtfulness.

Jai shook her head quickly, “Nothing even remotely close to  _ this _ , I just know a guy who knows a guy.”

Cassian doubted it was worth asking her to elaborate, not that he cared much for the details to begin with. He turned his eyes forward again as Jai continued to plan out the specifics of the next few hours. Occasionally she chimed up to ask Cassian a question about the lab or this contact he had on Dennaskar, but otherwise the two remained in a tense silence.

As they were finally nearing Dennaskar’s starport, Cassian reached out to his contact so they could meet and collect the disguises and building access. He instructed Jai to stay back on the ship, not wanting his contact to be exposed to any more rebels than necessary just in case the man ever felt enticed to turn against them. Once Cassian had left, Jai continued to occupy herself with more planning and speculation for the mission.

She wouldn’t dare admit she was nervous -- the last thing she needed was for Cassian to know. There were a million ways this job could go south, and if she vocalized any of those doubts, Jai was sure she’d trip herself up somewhere along the way and their efforts would be wasted. She knew she could do what the job required of her -- she had the equipment and the confidence in her expertise as a slicer, and navigating foreign computers was certainly not any reason to doubt her skills. But going into a massive Empire affiliated lab where they were severely outnumbered was a terrifying thought, to put it mildly.

“Maybe we need a speeder… should we have put someone at base on standby…” Jai mumbled to herself to try to keep her anxiety at bay. She continued to mutter both useful and not-so-useful thoughts to keep herself distracted as she fiddled with her scramble key.

From her seat in the cockpit, Jai’s eyes slowly slid across the expanse of the port, studying the hundreds of ships and people thoughtfully, counting each time she spotted a stormtrooper. There weren’t many to be found, though that didn’t mean they weren’t lurking around somewhere; Jai wondered just how many there were at the Santhe lab, and if they were smart enough to sniff out rebels in disguise.

Behind her, the hatch door opened again, Jai turning to sit at an angle so she could lean forward and look at Cassian. The bag that he had thrown over his shoulder prior to leaving the ship was now fuller than it had been before, obviously stuffed with the uniforms he borrowed. As he closed the door behind him, Cassian looked up at Jai briefly while setting the bag down on one of the collapsable seats, beginning to pull out the articles of clothing with that same unreadable expression etched across his face that he’d had the entire flight.

“Come on, we have to be quick.” Cassian started as he held up one of the shirts to see if it was his size or Jai’s. The slicer hopped to her feet and joined him, taking the shirt that he absently held out to her with one hand as his other continued to sort out the clothes, “Most of the staff is only on base for another couple of hours -- it’s better to go in while the place is packed with employees than to wait till later when security is more alert.”

Jai nodded, though she knew Cassian didn’t see it as he shrugged out of his vest, dropping it onto one of the seats. She followed suit, pulling off her jacket and setting it aside, glancing back at Cassian as he started to undo his shirt as well. Jai’s eyes widened some with a tinge of interest -- sure, she had seen a few people strip in front of her in the past, but it was not something treated so casually nor was it something she was all that accustomed to. Cassian didn’t even seem to give it a second thought, and before he could show too much skin Jai turned so her shoulder was toward him, dropping her head down as she too tugged at her own shirt.

As she reached to scoop up the white Santhe shirt off the chair, Jai’s eyes pulled back to Cassian, looking him up and down with a look somewhere between curiosity and sheepishness, her stare lingering on his shoulders and then his lat muscles before they were covered by his new shirt. Feeling her cheeks redden, Jai turned away again before Cassian could notice her stare, picking up her pace.

Cassian, accustomed to being in close quarters with other soldiers, didn’t even consider whether or not Jai herself would be so comfortable with them changing in front of one another, and the thought continued to evade him when he turned back toward her as she was buckling her trousers. He paid almost no mind to the flash of her stomach that he got, only staring at her a moment before grabbing up his blaster and a couple of small tools from his discarded clothes.

Once she was situated in the uniform, Jai climbed back up into the cockpit to grab her tool bag, digging out her datapad and scramble key, knowing that she couldn’t bring the entire bag with her. As she tucked the datapad into the back of her pants, Jai considered what else she might need, stealing another look towards Cassian as if he could read her mind and tell her; the man simply stared back with slight impatience. She decided that she had all she needed, so she dropped her bag with the rest of their belongings and put the scramble key in one of her pockets.

Just before they stepped off of the ship, Cassian grabbed a second blaster and held it out to Jai, whose stare lingered on the weapon for a couple of moments before she slowly took it from his grasp.

“What, no weapons training yet?” He condescended, to which Jai shook her head with a glare, “Can’t shoot and can’t fly…”

_ ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have brought you on this mission, after all.’ _ Jai was sure Cassian wanted to say.

“And you can’t slice.” She bit back dismissively, breezing past Cassian and out of the ship. He scowled at the back of Jai’s head for a moment before following her out and leading the way through the port.

Cassian’s contact left an indiscript speeder for them to get up to the lab, but nothing else beyond that -- once they got to that front gate, the rest was up to them.

It was simple enough for Jai to bypass the security gate without an access card, and once through the gate they could walk into Santhe Labs without any trouble. Once inside, however, they had to figure out where they were going, seeing as there wasn’t exactly a map of the place just sitting around for them -- Cassian hadn’t prepared for someone to take K-2SO’s place, as the droid was supposed to lead the way through the lab. 

“What, you didn’t think to try to get floor plans before coming here?” Jai reprimanded through her teeth, hoping to avoid drawing any attention as they passed Santhe employees; so far, no one seemed to bat an eye at them.

“ _ You _ didn’t think to either.” Cassian retorted.

“You’d lead a woman to think this was your first mission…” The pair turned their dark eyes on one another at the exact same moment, glowering.

“Up until a few hours ago I thought I’d have Kay with me to navigate the building.”

Jai hummed in annoyance while looking away from him, quickly stepping into a hall just as they nearly passed it. Cassian had to turn on his heel to follow her, the two ducking into an empty part of the hallway so Jai could snatch her datapad from where it was tucked in her waistband. She started tapping on it a little too roughly, an obvious passive aggressive gesture as she glanced up at Cassian while she did so. He quirked a challenging brow at Jai before she turned back to her screen, Cassian looking up and down the hall to ensure they continued to remain inconspicuous.

Eventually, Jai began leading the way through the halls again, her expression resolute as she avoided sparing Cassian a glance. The two went and boarded a turbolift that they fortunately had all to themselves. Cassian had expected another long stretch of rigid silence, but as soon as the doors were closed Jai began speaking, continuing to avoid looking toward him.

“Once we’re in the archives, I need you to do exactly what I ask, or else this won’t work.” Her tone was hawkish, unexpectedly stern and authoritative, “I’ll make sure we get the data, you make sure we get out of here in one piece.”

* * *

They weren’t going to get out of here in one piece.

Jai got all of the information they needed, and Cassian had been the perfect distraction just like she asked him to be. They strolled on out of the building without any issues and climbed back into their borrowed speeder, ready to head back to Yavin 4 with their new data and their confidence well intact.

But then they passed through the gates to exit Santhe Labs, and trouble was there waiting for them.

They found themselves confronted by a wall of stormtroopers, all ready to start shooting if the pair didn’t surrender whatever it was that they stole. One of the troopers in the center of the group began to lower his weapon while stepping forward, instructing the rebels to give up their stolen information and surrender. Jai’s eyes widened with worry as she looked back towards Cassian, but the captain looked calm and resolute as he took a few deep breaths through his nose, staring unblinkingly at the Empire troop as the leader began to repeat himself.

Jai wasn’t prepared for just how quickly Cassian sprung into action. He threw his hand on the back of her head and shoved it down to rest atop her knees, slouching down in his own seat as he suddenly sped through the blockade in front of them, roughly knocking down a number of stormtroopers as the rest jumped away from the speeding vehicle.

Almost instantly, blasters started shooting off from what sounded like every direction, ricocheting off of the metal and shattering the thin glass panel that lined the front of the speeder’s cockpit. Jai threw her hands out to either side of her in search of a secure grip, her right latching onto the inner wall of the speeder and the other clamping down on Cassian’s knee. If it weren’t for his state of complete focus, Cassian would have shouted at Jai for digging her nails so deep that she managed to break skin even through the layer of fabric.

After they were out of range of the shots, at least for the time being, Cassian pulled his hand out of Jai’s hair and retrieved his blaster from where it was tucked under his shirt, dropping it into his lap so he could use both hands to maneuver their speeder through the narrow streets of of Juspus. Jai’s head shot back up, eyes wide and jaw slightly agape as she whipped around to look back at the Empire forces they just evaded. She relinquished her grip on both the wall and on Cassian’s thigh as she propped herself on her knees and fumbled to grab her own blaster.

“Did you set off some kind of security in there!?” Cassian accused as he sped past buildings, knowing that any moment now stormtroopers, likely with their own varieties of speeders, would catch up to them.

Jai’s glare jumped toward him, “It was probably your fucking contact that sold us out!”

A barrage of shots sounded behind from down the street, but Cassian managed to whip around a corner and avoid most of them. He steadied out the speeder again as his eyes darted around, trying to spot everywhere the stormtroopers might be waiting for them.

He didn’t have the patience to argue, not right now -- he had to get them back to their ship and off of this planet before it was too late, “Here’s your crash course in using that damned thing!” He spared a glance at Jai so he could point toward her blaster with his chin, “Put that thing on kill setting and don’t hesitate!”

Jai looked warily at the gun in her hands, staring almost dumbly at it for a moment. Another laser flew between them, causing Jai to jump before securing her grip and lifting the blaster up to eye level. She turned in her seat to face behind them, eyes widening as she saw the squad of stormtroopers on their tail and closing in.

“Keep low so you’re a smaller target!” Cassian instructed, “And hold on!”

Jai barely had time to steady herself before Cassian sharply rounded another corner. She sank as low in the seat as she could, her arms resting along the back of the speeder and her eyes level with the weapon. As the stormtroopers rounded the corner behind them, Jai’s finger pressed down on the trigger and she let out a short string of blasts, only managing to land a couple with how unsteady and untrained her aim was. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cassian also take up his blaster, holding it ready to assist her. Every few seconds, Cassian would whip his head back long enough to vaguely line up his shot and pull the trigger a couple of times before returning his attention to the road ahead of them.

Eventually, they made another dramatic sharp turn, but before they could even make sense of the company of stormtroopers waiting there for them, the speeder was hit with a blast, perhaps from a grenade, and the vehicle went flying back as the engine exploded, dumping both passengers out onto the street. The speeder crashed roughly into a nearby wall as thick smoke, dust, and debris filled the air and blinded everyone.

Jai could hear a ringing in her ears as she immediately made to scramble out of the line of fire -- she may not have been a rebel for long, but back on the Ring of Kafrene, she’d been accidentally caught up in her fair share of street fights through the years. Growing up, one learned early on that you had to be quick to run whenever you started hearing shots and blasts echoing through the narrow Kafrene streets.

As Jai flung herself into an alleyway, fumbling with both her blaster and her datapad to ensure she didn’t drop either, the dust from their crash began to settle; she could see that Cassian had the same idea as her, as he had rushed to duck into the alley on the opposite side of the street from her.

For a long moment, none of the stormtroopers moved, and Cassian’s distressed eyes finally spotted Jai across the way from him. The relief that washed over him was immediately obvious -- for a minute there, he was almost sure that something terrible had happened to the rookie. The two stared wide eyed at one another, each breathing rapidly and listening carefully for when the stormtroopers would surely start moving and shooting again any moment now.

Cassian motioned up the street with his head, trying to keep their communication silent.  _ ‘Go,’ _ he mouthed, Jai’s brows turning down slightly at it. A moment later, Cassian turned on his heels and began running through the alley; Jai immediately jumped to her feet and mirrored him, turning away from the Empire forces and pushing as hard as her legs would allow through the roads and pathways of Juspus.

She had to get back to Cassian. She had to get back to their ship.

Jai could hear the stormtroopers on the move not far behind her, and frantically Jai pumped her legs even harder. Jai dove through a number of short, twisting streets and alleys until she burst out onto a crowded road, whipping her head left and right in panic. She couldn’t spot Cassian or stormtroopers, nor could she hear those Empire soldiers that were pursuing her over the noise of the crowd. Jai realized that the building across from her was a large market, and without a second of hesitation, she darted towards it, hoping the cramped crowd would hide her. As she maneuvered through the Juspus locals and eyed the stalls filled with goods and food, Jai reminisced for a split second that the place reminded her of home.

Jai kept her head ducked down as she slowed her pace and mingled in with the crowd, her eyes searching the various shops for any that looked to have clothes as part of the merchandise -- she knew that she needed to get out of this Santhe uniform if she wanted to blend in and evade the stormtroopers hot on her trail.

_ ‘Don’t fuck up now.’ _ Jai tried to pep herself up -- she needed to rely on her not-so-impressive thieving skills for this one. She finally spotted a tent stall with various fabrics and articles of clothing and began pushing through the crowd towards it, slinking up alongside the thin fabric wall to avoid the attention of the shopkeep.

Once the owner became distracted with a young couple at the entrance of the stall, Jai reached between the sheets that closed it off on the sides and grabbed at whatever fabric she could get her hands on, not paying much mind to what articles of clothing they even were. She grabbed far more than she needed and quickly dove back into the crowd, eyes searching up and down, left and right for any sign of stormtroopers. Despite the harsh noise of the crowd, Jai was almost sure that she could hear them somewhere around her, but she couldn’t see over the heads of everyone around her. She continued to shove her way forward, spotting another gap between two stalls and making her way towards it, ducking between them and beginning to sift through the variety of fabrics in her arms.

Luckily, there were a couple of shirts amidst the mass of clothing, both of which would surely look more like short kaftans on Jai based on their size. But that issue wasn’t even remotely on her mind as she dragged a dark colored one over her head. There were mostly scarves in the collection that she stole, and speedily she wrapped one around herself and tied it off to create a makeshift pouch for her gun and datapad, and then grabbed another scarf and started wrapping it’s layers around her head, making sure to tuck all of her ashy hair up inside it.

Jai began to relax, if only just a little. She took a few long moments to try to slow down her breathing and her heart rate, but she knew she had to get back out there quickly -- she was terrified to think of what trouble Cassian might be in right now, she had to get back to the ship and hope he managed to get back as well.

Slowly, but no less cautiously, Jai stepped back into the main stretch of the marketplace, looking around herself again for the stormtroopers. A large group of them was in the crowd behind her, and another few were up ahead near another exit, obviously scanning their eyes over the crowd carefully. Jai’s eyes widened slightly as she looked around herself, but couldn’t spot any other exit; had the stormtroopers gotten a good enough look at her face to recognize her if she walked past? She had to get out of this market, meaning she had to risk it and hope for the best.

Jai waited until a sizable mass of people were making for the exit, and she jumped into the middle of them, keeping her head turned down and praying she didn’t draw any kind of attention to herself.

Once she was outside, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief -- they hadn’t noticed her. Jai continued down the street as if she had somewhere important to be and knew exactly where she was going, her eyes remaining ever watchful as she went. Stormtroopers were still going up and down the roads in search of both she and Cassian, and Jai took every step she could to avoid getting too close to any of them.

Where the hell was she? Jai got turned around far too easily in the mass that was Juspus. She looked over the nearby faces on the street around her, carefully studying them to determine who might be safe to ask for directions, if anyone. She continued to hope that any moment now she’d see Cassian’s face appear amongst the crowds.

Eventually, an older gentleman had her turned in the right direction. Jai used as many alleys and side streets as she could so that she wouldn't draw attention to herself when she ran, and whenever she set foot onto a larger road, she abruptly slowed and walked at pace with the pedestrians around her.

Still no sign of Cassian. Despite feeling as if she had safely evaded the stormtroopers, anxiety still pounded in Jai’s chest, worry for her partner increasing with each passing minute.

_ ‘He’s fine, he’s been doing this for two decades.’ _

_ ‘But he’s all on his own and at an obvious disadvantage.’ _

_ ‘But you’re alone and you managed just fine.’ _

_ ‘What if there were more troops that went after him?’ _

_ ‘He’s probably already back at the ship and waiting for you.’ _

_ ‘Or he’s already off planet and left you for dead.’ _

The debate in Jai’s head seemed to grow louder and louder as she got closer to the starport, which she could now see in the distance out ahead of her. She paused and took another long, cautious look around, scanning the streets in every direction to collect a count on the stormtroopers. As she continued to approach the port, she realized a large blockage was waiting near the wide entryway -- had Cassian’s ship been identified? Were more stormtroopers up in the U-Wing and digging through all of their belongings?

Jai took a deep breath and ducked into another alleyway, pulling her datapad out of the makeshift purse and then her scramble key from her pocket, connecting the two so her datapad would work faster. She had to see if there was a second entrance or some other way of getting in.

She still had to find Cassian.

There was a north side entry into the starport. She just had to find her way to it. Did she retreat back into the hub of the city in search of her partner, or did she get herself to the U-Wing and wait for him if he wasn’t already there?

Jai peered back out into the street again as she tried to come to a decision, first looking toward the port, and then in the opposite direction. But she froze as her gaze fell on a familiar face, a sinking feeling dropping in her stomach as her eyes widened.

_ Cassian _ .

But he wasn’t alone. A stormtrooper walked on either side of him, escorting the frustrated looking captain in the direction of the starport. Were they going to search the ship? Maybe they were going to escort him off the planet and to somewhere else far worse?

It didn’t matter what they were going to do -- what mattered was that her partner was grabbed, and Jai had to do something about it.

She traded her datapad for her blaster -- there was still a significant distance between them and the port entrances. If Jai could shoot them both down, she and Cassian would have more than enough time to run and make their way to the north entrance while the stormtroopers far down the road chased after them again.

She paused, taking a few steady breaths. Now or never. If they got any closer, the two stormtroopers would spot Jai’s attack and she’d lose the element of surprise.

Jai moved to press her back against the opposite wall, just shy of peeking around the corner. She turned her head slowly and watched the trio for a long moment before raising her blaster, trying to line up her shot.

When she pulled the trigger, the laser missed its target, zooming between Cassian and one of the stormtroopers, barely missing her partner’s head by a few inches. As both troopers immediately looked in Jai’s direction and aimed their own blasters, Cassian took advantage of their distraction, immediately fighting one for his weapon. As the two struggled with the blaster, Cassian secured his hand on the trigger and shot at the second stormtroopers, who collapsed just as he had turned to help fight Cassian. As the first trooper fell, Jai darted out toward her partner, but she kept her weapon lowered, realizing it was far too risky to try to shoot the second stormtrooper with Cassian so close.

The rebel captain managed to finally steal away the blaster and jump back, and practically in sync he and Jai took aim and both shot the trooper. They stood frozen for a moment as they met each other’s gaze, each with a look of relief shining in their eyes as they caught their breath. But they knew they couldn’t linger, and Jai moved towards Cassian with an insistent look.

“Come on.” She latched onto Cassian’s sleeve and started tugging him away into a sidestreet, knowing that the stormtroopers down at the starport entrance had surely seen their fight and would have already begun pursuing them.

Cassian allowed himself to be dragged along for a few moments almost as if he were in a daze before he stole back his arm, both surprised and gratified at how well Jai had done. As Cassian followed behind her through the streets, he stared at the back of her head with pride.

“There’s a second entrance,” Jai began to explain as she paused in a narrow alleyway, Cassian nearly bumping into her with how close he was following. She spun around to meet his eyes, a surprising calm surrounding the two of them, “I think we’ll have a better chance slipping in that way.”

Cassian looked Jai up and down, tilting his head as he finally had the opportunity to take in her change of attire and recognize how smart it was. His eyes shined with a quiet acclaim at her efforts that Jai didn’t quite recognize -- her childhood on Kafrene had taught her something valuable, it would seem.

“Lead the way.” Cassian said with a nod as he, too, decided to shrug off what he could of the Santhe uniform, discarding the formal shirt and being left with just his dark tank top as coverage; for a moment, as Jai eyed his exposed collarbone, she wished she had saved that other tunic for him. But this was better than the obvious, stark white uniform, and after meeting his eyes one more time, Jai motioned with her head for Cassian to follow, and she started leading them through Juspus once more.

Maybe they would be getting out of here in one piece after all.

* * *

“Captain Andor, Tillian  _ was not _ cleared to go on this mission, nor has she been cleared access to leave base for field training yet.” General Draven chastised with severe crossness. Across from him, Cassian and Jai stood side by side, disheveled and covered in dirt, clothing worn and ripped. They’d been back to Yavin 4 for less than ten minutes when the General marched up to them as they were on their way to the turbolift; it appeared that Draven was waiting for them, well prepared to chew them out and make Jai wish she could just shrink away from him and completely disappear.

Despite the nervous drumming in her chest, Jai’s eyes were fixed into the slightest of glares as she watched the General unblinkingly, but the man refused to look at her, his own harsh eyes trained solely on Cassian. Jai kept her lips tightly shut, fearing to even try to speak up to the man; beside her, Cassian stood tall and sure. If he was upset, he kept it well in control, though the fire in his stare gave away the intensity that was just waiting to burst at the seams as he stared back at his commander.

“I asked her to go, and she agreed.” Cassian replied simply, his tone solid and without apology; he knew the fault for the decision fell on him, and he was ready to stand by it. 

“You can’t bring a rookie out without consulting me first.” Draven argued just as firmly, taking a step closer to the pair.

Challenge seemed to cross Cassian’s eyes, but he continued to keep himself unapologetically composed, “But I brought a rookie, and she performed beyond my expectations.”

Jai turned her head to look up at her partner, curiosity daring to pull at her expression -- unless she didn’t know any better, that very nearly sounded like a compliment.

“Tillian is a talented slicer,” Cassian continued just as Draven looked like he was ready to argue again, “This job wouldn’t have happened without her… She’s a valuable asset in the field.”

Jai nearly couldn’t believe Cassian was defending her, especially to General Draven. After all, the mission almost ended terribly, and Jai would have expected Cassian to attribute that near failure to her inexperience. But no, instead he stood here unwavering in front of Draven who was less than happy about Cassian’s last minute and risky decision to bring her along. Despite all of the flukes they encountered, Cassian still recognized just how hard Jai had worked on the mission, how hard she pushed to get them off of Dennaskar safely.

General Draven stared harshly at Cassian a few moments longer before his eyes finally flicked down to Jai, who took a sharp breath through her nose as her eyes met his. He only looked at her for a brief yet jarring moment before returning his glare to Cassian one last time. The General stepped back from them, starting to turn away.

“We’ll finish this later; go get yourselves cleaned up.” Without another word, he retreated back toward the turbolifts. As Cassian and Jai stood for a few long moments, she finally noticed that a few other rebels nearby in the hangar had been watching the confrontation curiously, some of whom immediately went back to work as Draven left, others continuing to eye the duo.

At nearly the same moment, Jai and Cassian turned their heads to meet one another’s eyes, silently staring for a few drawn out beats. They could see how exhausted the other was, but they could also see each other’s relief and the pride they felt for getting out of Denneskar alive and with their job complete. 

Jai pressed her lips together firmly for a moment before her shoulders relaxed, “… Thanks.”

Cassian’s brows moved up slightly in question, “For what, getting you on Draven’s bad side?”

Jai nearly smiled at that, “For bringing me along even if you didn’t want to.” She pointed to where Draven had stood in front of them just a minute prior, “And for that.”

Cassian shook his head, “Thank you for not making me regret the decision.”

He began toward the turbolift, the look on his face like a silent request for Jai to come with him. Cassian chewed the inside of his cheek as he thought.

“… You did a good job,” He said, though he still wanted to avoid sounding too complimentary, “You’re still a shit shot, but you showed real smarts dealing with those troopers.”

Jai rolled her eyes, but this time she did so with a slight smirk pulling at her lips, the gesture one of amusement rather than her usual annoyance at him. The pair stepped into the turbolift to begin the ascend to the barracks; as the doors closed, Jai allowed herself to slump tiredly against the wall, slowly starting to unravel the scarf that was still loosely hanging around her head and neck. Once it was removed, Jai stared down at the scarf in her hands thoughtfully for a few moments, and for the first time it seemed as if the silence between them was actually comfortable.

Jai sighed deeply, “I think they’re gonna stick me on desk duty again.”

“Probably.”

“Maybe I can convince Gar to let me work the repair shop until Draven let’s me go out into the field.” She looked back up at Cassian, who, too, was leaning against the wall, his eyes staring ahead of him thoughtfully, “I could keep an eye on Kay, make sure no one fucks up his programming.”

At that, Cassian smiled lazily, looking back up to meet Jai’s eyes with a nearly teasing look, “Who’s to say you won’t be the one to fuck it up?”

Jai’s jaw dropped in a look of mock offense, her eyes shiny with surprised amusement -- Cassian just cracked  _ a joke  _ with her. The man continued to smirk smally at her, waiting for the inevitable comeback.

“If you keep giving me attitude I will.” She countered, shaking her head with mirth as the doors opened again, and the two stepped out, walking to the barracks entrance in companionable silence.

It didn’t matter that they’d surely get their asses handed to them by their superiors once Draven called them back for a debriefing -- they’d collected the information, they got off of Dannaskar unharmed, and they seemed to have finally moved on from their petty disdain for one another. At least for a little while longer, they could feel calm and content.

Cassian wouldn’t admit it out loud, but in that moment, the two of them walking together, covered in the grime from a mission that nearly went to hell, he saw a future rebel beside him, someone that he could, perhaps one day, come to trust.

* * *

Agreement [uh- **gree** -m _ uh _ nt]

_ noun _

1\. the act of agreeing or of coming to a mutual arrangement/understanding

2\. the state of being in accord


	3. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's happened again, I put off updating because I'm still trying to work on the second half of this fic lol. I've been considering adding an additional chapter to my already planned six so to include more ideas I had, and if I do decide to add a seventh chapter that will probably also delay the next few updates. Till then, enjoy this next update!

After four months with the Rebel Alliance, Jai had managed to become one of the regular techs on the hangar deck. Sure, she was still often called up to the control room to deal with complex hacking jobs, but she had found that her happy place was the hangar, where things moved quickly and she could get her hands on all kinds of jobs, whether they be slicer or mechanic jobs.

And being in the hangar meant she had a higher chance of being asked to go into the field if so needed. After her first mission with Cassian, Jai initially wasn't let back out in the field; it took another month before they decided to send her on her first official job with a team that needed a tech for their mission. Since then, her away trips were still few and far between, but now she was finally getting the opportunity to do interesting tasks in the workshop.

Gar wasn't immediately willing to let Jai start working in the hangar full time. Like Cassian, he was hesitant about the seemingly disinterested slicer. But after Jai and Cassian returned from their Dennaskar mission, she pestered Gar regarding K-2SO's repairs, and Cassian at a later point commented on Jai's skill, so the head mechanic decided it was worth giving the rookie an opportunity to prove herself.

Gar realized quickly he was right to do so - Jai was obviously a great slicer, but what she was most passionate about was the mechanics of everything. He watched her tackle every complex task given to her with pleasure, a subtle though no-less-enthused eagerness to figure out how to fix or upgrade every piece of technology she could get her hands on. He had no reason to admit it out loud, as it was also far too early to say with total certainty, but Gar could see Jai taking over his job one day in the future if she continued to improve her expertise on droids.

Jai was underneath a console and inside one of the gunships' wiring when she heard her project partner call to her from where he stood on the back end of the ship, "Recruits are back; it's about time."

Jai hummed with only vague acknowledgment as she dragged herself out from under the console - she was a little too focused to really give the remark much thought.

Early that morning, a small group of recruits went out on their first serious mission, which was meant to be more of a training exercise, but Jai's partner had made some passing comment earlier that it seemed to be taking them longer than expected. Neither of them gave it much consideration beyond that, though, seeing as the job had nothing to do with them. Cassian was the captain on the training mission, which Jai didn't know until her partner had mentioned it, though there was no reason she needed to know it.

Since their mission together, Jai and Cassian had been on much better terms, though neither would go so far as to say they were friends. No one was friends with Cassian, that much Jai had figured out after these four months. The man liked to keep a distance from everyone, even those that he'd known for years. It was obvious he trusted everyone in the Alliance and that he cared about the people he worked with, even those he barely knew, but he always hesitated to let anyone in too close. That explained why a damn droid seemed to be his only friend.

" _He's protecting himself_." Miona had said one day when she and Jai both happened to have the time off, "Even with how distant he tries to be, he's still so empathetic, feels everything way more than he let's on. You've seen how affected he is whenever something happens to another rebel, even one he doesn't know well. He can't imagine how much more it would hurt if he actually let himself get any closer to these people."

"Sounds like you know him well." Jai responded with curiosity, to which Miona had simply shrugged.

"He spends a lot of time in medical." A smile pulled at her lips as Jai laughed lightly, unsurprised that one of the best captains in the Rebellion was prone to injury. He went on _so_ many jobs one right after the other with little regard for rest in-between sometimes - that sort of rapid lifestyle was practically asking for injuries.

"So, you two are _almost_ friends?" Jai grinned at the woman across from her.

"With Cassian, who knows."

As Jai retrieved her scramble key from where she had hooked it up to the pilot's computer, her partner hissed some kind of harsh, surprised word under his breath. With a raised brow, Jai turned around, assuming he had probably shocked himself or closed his finger in something while working on the panel at the back of the ship. But the man's attention was clearly trained outside of the ship, looking at _something_ that caused his expression to knot with curious shock. Jai's own face mimicked the look on his as she turned back around to look out the cockpit windows, trying to find what the other technician was looking at.

The recruits were scrambling out of Cassian's U-Wing in distress, making way for two of them, one of which was carrying out another unconscious recruit while the other assisted their delirious and barely conscious captain. K-2SO exited behind the group as if he had been ignored.

Just like her partner, Jai hissed harshly as her eyes widened, turning to jump out of the cockpit and slip past her partner.

"Finish that up, would you?" She called over her shoulder to him as she began to briskly walk across the hangar to the mess of anxious recruits. Without withdrawing her eyes from her destination, Jai pulled out her comlink and called for Miona and another couple doctors to meet her down in the hangar. A second recruit had taken Cassian's free arm over his shoulder as Jai jogged the short distance that remained between her and them, "The hell happened?"

Despite her only being here a couple months longer than these recruits, she still managed to speak with a knowing authority, even if she didn't feel either knowing or authoritative in the matter. The wide eyes of the four unharmed recruits all turned to her.

"It was supposed to be an easy mission, but we messed up," one of them said frantically while running toward Jai, who hardly spared the other woman a glance as she quickly took in Cassian's appearance.

She brushed past to get a closer look at her acquaintance - he and the unconscious woman looked as if they had been doused in debri and soot, their skin and clothes stained dark with it. There was dried blood caked in Cassian's hair and down the side of his face, and his pants were torn across his right thigh, which would have revealed an injury if his skin and pant leg weren't absolutely dyed with his blood. Jai reached out and set a hand on Cassian's shoulder, tilting her head to see if the man was still aware enough to meet her gaze; it was immediately obvious he wasn't, his hooded eyes glazed over and staring vacantly at the ground. Jai spun around to look at the unconscious woman who appeared to be just as bad as, maybe even worse than, Cassian.

Jai's eyes jumped from one person to the next, stopping on one of the two men holding Cassian up, " _Please_ tell me he had bacta spray on the ship."

The man nodded frantically, "We used all of it between the two of them."

"If you all had just listened to me, we wouldn't be in this predicament." K-2SO finally chimed up, drawing everyone's eyes over. Jai walked a couple of steps toward the tall droid, craning her neck to look into his face.

"What happened, Kay?" Jai asked firmly, knowing the droid would give her a better, albeit judgmental, explanation of what went wrong. Jai looked back at the group for a split second, her stare commanding, "Set him down somewhere carefully, medical's on their way."

She looked back up at Kay, " _I_ told them it would be a trap, but they pushed forward anyway. And Cassian _let them_! He and Harin were practically blown to pieces!"

Jai turned back around again to look at Cassian as K-2SO continued. The captain had been sat on a crate with the two recruits remaining on either side of him to keep him propped upright. Jai spoke loud enough for K-2SO to hear, but she was speaking to herself with a nearly absent tone, "No one ever listens to droids…"

"And they're fools for it." Kay said firmly, obviously miffed to have been ignored on the job yet again.

Miona and two more doctors were there to meet the group a few minutes later, getting the two rebels situated into stretchers as Miona turned her attention onto Jai and K-2SO. The droid once more gave a short, disdainful explanation of what went down on this seemingly simple mission, not shy to let the recruits hear it.

As the other two doctors went onto the turbolifts without Miona, Jai looked back to Kay briefly, "Finish up with the recruits, I'll head to medical with Cassian."

Despite his face being expressionless, Jai felt as if Kay was questioning why she had any reason to go with the captain. And there really was no reason, seeing as she wasn't a part of this mission's team nor did she have any help to offer medically. Perhaps she was worried or curious, but maybe she felt she owed Cassian; after all, he was the one to bring her to Yavin 4 after she was shot, maybe this was a way to repay that favor. Whatever the reason, Jai didn't have to explain herself to a droid.

Jai and Miona started for the turbolift, and despite their shared concern for Cassian and the recruit (though they were confident the two would be fine), Miona grinned playfully while bumping Jai's shoulder with her own.

"If you keep disappearing during your shifts, Gar is gonna start getting pissy with you." Jai shot her friend a teasing glare as they boarded the lift.

"You skip one, maybe two shifts and suddenly you get a reputation for being a flake…" they shared a small laugh as the doors closed.

* * *

Within a few days, Cassian was right as rain, the bacta working it's usual magic. Harin, his injured recruit, luckily wasn't in as bad a shape as he was after the blast, and she was able to leave medical in less than two days, not that Cassian had noticed. For the majority of the three days he was in the medical wing, he was unconscious and resting, the healing process far more effective with the patient remaining under.

After Miona had let Cassian's peers know he was awake, one of his fellow captains, Kinall, came to meet him once he felt well enough for conversation - Captain Kinall took over for him to finish up with the group of trainees, going over what went wrong on their first mission and how they were going to improve the next time they went out. Two of the newbies had already managed to join new missions, while the other two uninjured ones had yet to show an interest in heading back out, though they had said they were waiting so they could try again with Harin back at their sides.

Miona discharged Cassian at the end of his third evening in medical, telling him to wait at least another day before he went back out into the field - she wanted to ensure he felt completely present and sturdy before having to lead any more missions. Cassian promised her that he would do just that as he rose from his cot, his body sore from nearly seventy hours of disuse; he definitely needed one last day to feel as if he were back to normal, though he would have loved to immediately jump back into his U-Wing and head out as if nothing had happened.

As Cassian stepped out of the hospital wing, he was surprised to see Jai lingering in the hall near the entrance, talking with one of the other doctors. She didn't notice the captain as he paused and looked at her curiously, not quite able to clearly hear their conversation. Jai was there to get an update on Cassian's condition, Miona having informed her that morning that the rebel captain would probably be all good to leave medical by that evening. Since Cassian was brought into the hospital wing a few days back, Jai asked Miona for updates on his condition whenever the two women met for meal breaks.

Miona was admittedly surprised that Jai had cared enough to keep asking about Cassian; she made some passing comment about it during one of their dinners together, to which the second woman said simply, "He's an ass, but he's the ass that brought me here so I guess I owe him at least some concern."

Miona accepted the response without question, though the answer hadn't entirely squashed her curiosity.

Cassian realized after a few moments of staring that Jai and the doctor still didn't spot him across the hall, so instead of standing there dumbly, he walked over to them, the slightest of limps evident in his stiff right leg. Finally catching the movement out of the corner of her eye, Jai looked his way and quickly gave a kind and casual smile.

"Look who finally decided to wake up." She quipped, to which the corner of Cassian's lip tugged up lazily as his eyes slightly narrowed with good humor.

The doctor knew this would be the end of their conversation, as he was pretty sure Jai was only hanging around with him to ask questions about and to wait for the captain now in their presence, so he excused himself, "Remember to take it easy, Andor."

Cassian gave a nod as the doctor brushed past him and back into the medical wing. He and Jai watched the man go before turning back to one another, staring for just a moment - he wouldn't have expected her to be here. Hell, he hardly would have expected her to even hear about his injury at all - there were so many rebels here to keep track of, and Jai had to have been incredibly busy most days, so it would have made sense that Cassian being out of commission for a few days would have gone completely unnoticed by her. The fact that somehow she knew he was here was a surprise in itself.

Cassian gave a small gauche grin as he considered Jai's presence, his eyes drawing away from her - what did this say about the both of them, Jai being here and Cassian feeling a certain contentment at it? Even after they had resolved their issues three months ago, they rarely spent more than a few minutes together, and those instances were few and far between given how infrequently they crossed paths on the job. They hadn't gone on a mission together since Dennaskar, and neither felt friendly enough to seek out the other just casually, so what compelled Jai to come down to medical?

The woman had managed to grow on Cassian in some minor way, even in their far too brief interactions over these last few months. When they did see each other, Jai was usually doing a repair or an upgrade on something he needed, or the two happened to have a few overlapping minutes in the hangar where neither was tied up with something. Cassian spent very little free time in the common spaces of headquarters, and most of his meals he took in his room rather than hanging around the mess hall, giving the two no real time to get to know one another outside of the passing snide comments they threw at one another in the hangar.

But those short moments when they saw one another managed to be droll. Jai always had some witty comment to make, whether about Cassian or about someone else; and as quick as Cassian was to quip back, Jai always had more smart remarks lined up. Their relationship (or, really, lack thereof) had progressively gone from genuine scowls and rude remarks to mirthful glares and deprecating jests.

"What, Gar let you off shift, or did you just walk out early?" Cassian teased straight-faced, to which Jai scoffed; though, knowing the hour, he was sure her shift was over.

"I'll have you know I'm done for the day." She retorted - apparently it wasn't only Miona that thought Jai somehow managed to sneak away from the hangar workshop, and Jai wondered how that was becoming her reputation around here.

Cassian gave her a faint smirk before looking up the hall, flicking his eyes back to her as a silent indicator that he was going to leave, and she was free to walk with him if she wished. They fell into stride next to one another a moment later, "Were you over here to meet me?"

"Nope, I just love chatting up doctors, nothing puts me to sleep as quickly as conversation with one of them." Jai glanced up at Cassian with a sarcastic look as he smiled to himself, "Miona told me you'd be out tonight."

"And you thought I'd want yours to be the first face I saw?" He looked down to see the glare in her eyes at the quip, the way she bit the inside of her cheek as if a habit to stop herself from immediately snapping back.

"I won't hesitate to put you right back in that hospital wing." She lazily threatened after a moment, her eyes twinkling with mischief before they fell into a companionable silence.

When they reached the other end of the long hall where it forked to lead to either the mess hall or the barracks, they came to a brief pause, glancing to one another, wondering what the other wanted to do or intended to go next.

"You probably want to rest," Jai suggested, beginning to turn towards the barracks hall.

"I've been resting for three days," Cassian replied, but nonetheless followed Jai, "I don't think I'll be sleeping any time soon - I'll probably be up all night staring at the wall if I tried."

"Hm, your idea of fun sounds a little different than mine." Jai threw him a look over her shoulder as they passed through the passageway into a smaller hall. Cassian returned to walking alongside Jai; a few beats passed before she spoke up again, "You need some help staring at that wall of yours?"

Cassian looked down curiously, surprised at the offer for some company. Sure, they could make jokes when they passed in the ship hangar, but he and Jai didn't know each other like _that_ \- no one really knew Cassian well enough to simply hang out with him. Cassian didn't spend his free time with anyone else one-on-one, and he certainly never brought anyone back to his room.

Well, on rare occasions _maybe_ he brought someone to his room, but that was for an entirely different reason…

And before he could even realize where his train of thought was heading, Cassian suddenly imagined Jai in a rather… _compromising_ position. It was the briefest of thoughts, Cassian's eyes widening at it immediately as he quickly tried to shove it out of his head, but the impression was already left. His face twisted slightly as he glanced at Jai out of the corner of his eye, she completely oblivious to the odd change in his expression - where the hell did _that_ stupid image come from?

Cassian gave his head a slight shake, forcing the thought to pass without giving it any more regard. As he looked back over to Jai casually, she, too, looked at him with a raised brow, about ready to dismiss her suggestion, interpreting Cassian's silence to be one of disinterest.

He quickly made a decision and replied, his tone casual as if nothing strange at all had even crossed his mind just a moment prior, "Staring at a wall is probably far more effective with two people."

Jai grinned at his reply, which was honestly not what she expected. The suggestion even surprised her a little, since neither of them had show much interest in getting to know one another, but it had slipped out, as if it were Jai's way of testing the waters with Cassian - if he agreed, maybe there was hope for their acquaintanceship, and if he turned her down, then Jai would know not to give the captain any more of her time outside of work. And when he did agree, more curiosity arose - maybe he was just as interested in testing on the waters as she was.

Winding their way through the grid of dorm halls, Jai suggested that they stop by her room to grab the bottle of Merenzane Gold that she had stashed in her minifridge, leading Cassian to ask when the hell she had time to pick some up and bring it back to the barracks. Their superiors didn't take much of an interest in what the rebels did with their free time, however, things such as alcohol were asked to be kept away from the private quarters, though for what reason no one really understood. Ask any rebel in the place if they had any drinks up in their dorms, and they were likely to say _"obviously"_ as if it were nothing at all.

"What, are you gonna report me, _Captain Andor_?" Jai teased as she retrieved said bottle from her tiny dorm.

From where he stood in the doorway, Cassian eyed how plain and impersonal her room was, save for the absolute _mess_ that was her desk, the top covered in tools, equipment, and electronics, much of which was unrecognizable because it was broken down into indiscernible pieces and parts.

They breezed out of the room without another remark toward the Merenzane Gold, which Jai carried openly in one hand without a care for the fact that others might see her with it; she knew no one was likely to say anything regarding it.

Just as Cassian had done in her room, Jai paused in the doorway of his once they finally reached it. Cassian's dorm was much further down the winding halls than Jai's, and she joked along the way that if she were trying to navigate them alone, she'd almost definitely get herself all turned around.

All of the rooms in the barracks were, for the most part, identical - same basic rectangle, same basic furnishings, same basic utilities. Jai had expected that maybe Cassian's would have been more personal than her own, given that he'd been on Yavin 4 far longer than she had. And yet, the room was practically bare and without any adornment. Disappointment pulled vaguely at Jai's expression as her eyes bounced around the room again as if expecting something to change. Jai had been to Miona's room, and to the room of Miona's girlfriend, both having some kind of personal touch - but Cassian's dorm looked just as newly inhabited as her own. In fact, Jai's looked more lived in than this one - at least her room had a bit of a mess, with her bed forever unmade, laundry piled just outside her closet, and one or two personal belongings lying about that she'd managed to grab during a recent visit to the Ring of Kafrene.

 _'He's been a soldier for twenty years.'_ Jai reminded herself. This life was the only one Cassian had ever known, and though it was perhaps a little melancholy, it was an explanation for why his room looked almost perfectly presentable. It was an explanation for why he kept people at arm's length, for why he was always so focused and so serious, for why he was so passionate and determined.

Cassian turned where he stood in the tiny kitchenette, having collected two glasses for them, his head tilting just a touch when he noticed Jai still stood in the doorframe, "What, do I need to invite you in?"

Jai gave a noncommittal eye roll and stepped into the room, hearing the door slide shut behind her. Cassian set the cups onto the small bar top and held his hand toward Jai, who closed the short distance between them and put the bottle of Merenzane into his outstretched palm. As he poured, Jai spun around and took a seat on the cramped couch (though, 'couch' was generous, as it was more like an oversized lounge chair); Cassian joined her a moment later, their knees bumping as he handed her a glass.

Jai took a long swig of the drink, pulling only a slight face at the burn of the alcohol in her throat. Cassian watched her casual chug with a nonplussed expression, the corners of his lips just starting to pull up in a small grin before he brought his glass to his own lips.

Jai turned her eyes back to him, "So, Kay tells me you tried to get yourself blown up."

Cassian's eyes narrowed over the rim of his glass, swallowing down the Merenzane that he'd begun to sip, "Does he?" Jai gave a noncommittal shrug, taking another drink from her glass as Cassian considered his mission from three days back, looking down to stare as his hands as they both clasped around his cup, "I should've seen that it was a trap."

Jai cleared her throat quietly, leaning forward to rest her chin in her hand and study Cassian's face for a moment, speaking nonchalantly, "No use stressing about it now, you all came out of it and got back here okay."

Cassian lifted his head to look at her with a serious stare, "But I should know better than to let something like that happen to rookies."

"We both could have been shot at any time on Dennaskar, you never seemed too worried about my safety there." There was nothing accusatory in her tone, in fact, it sounded as if she was even trying to be funny about it. Jai never blamed Cassian for what happened back in Juspus; she was just stating what she took to be facts.

Cassian huffed a small though unamused laugh, his brows raising in surprise at her presumption, "You think I wasn't concerned?"

He recalled that moment months ago when they were both thrown out of the speeder, how he frantically tried to search amongst the dust cloud and smoke for Jai, the panic pounding at his chest as he thought he had just gotten someone killed. That anxiety and self-hatred Cassian felt in the minute that he couldn't see his partner was something he was sure Jai had never known the likes of. When the air finally cleared and he spotted her across the road from him, he nearly didn't believe she came out of that alright, nearly didn't believe that she was mirroring him in the opposite alley trying to figure out how the hell they'd get out of there.

Did Jai really think he didn't care about what could have happened to her? No matter how much he had disliked her at the time, Cassian would have felt no less guilty if she lost her life because of him back on Dennaskar.

Cassian took a long swig from his glass, his eyes unblinking as they stayed trained on Jai, and that small action in itself already led Jai to doubt her earlier assumption about him, "I'm _always_ worried. If I wasn't, countless people, including myself, would already be dead."

Jai tilted her head, staring back at Cassian carefully as an unexpected memory came flooding back to her, a phrase and a voice from years ago that by now rarely haunted her. She couldn't remember the last time she'd heard those particular words in her head, nor could she remember the last time she even heard them spoken out loud, though she could still tell someone the exact day that she last heard that voice. As a small frown dared to tug at her expression, her mind considering that familiar phrase, Jai turned her eyes away from Cassian, just beyond his head to stare into the kitchenette behind him.

"Guess there really is no courage without fear…" She muttered, the words so quiet that Cassian couldn't quite make out exactly what she said.

"What?" Cassian cocked his head, drawing back Jai's attention as she briefly nibbled on the inside of her lip.

"My, uh… dad told me that." She looked away again thoughtfully, her dark eyes looking off as if she were somewhere else, her brows pulled together slightly. But a moment later, she shook it off, her face straightening out as she looked back at Cassian, her somber tone disappearing - the memory hadn't upset her, not really, but it was completely unexpected and had simple knocked her off balance, "Pretty inspiring quote coming from some old slicer, huh?"

Cassian smirked, though the amusement didn't quite reach his eyes as he suddenly caught himself feeling curious about Jai and her past. He asked with a hint of humor in his voice, "Slicing was the family business?"

At that, Jai did give a small, genuine smile, "You could say that." She took another sip from her glass before continuing, "I guess Draven never talked to you about that, huh?"

"About what?"

"My history - before they were willing to recruit me they looked into my past as best they could. They didn't find much of anything, given that there's nothing really to be found, but I told them practically every damn thing about me."

Cassian shook his head, "No, he never said."

Jai hummed, knocking back the last of her drink and rising to her feet to go refill her glass. She turned back to Cassian and shook the bottle, silently asking if he wanted more, to which he nodded and held up his own half empty cup. Jai returned and filled both glasses, setting the bottle on the floor beside the couch as she sat back down.

She licked her lips, "Tillian's not my real name - it was the name of the guy on Kafrene that raised me. He was pretty notorious in the underbelly for being a talented slicer, taught me everything I know."

Cassian nodded, "So, he's not your father?"

Jai smiled a little at the question, though it wasn't entirely an amused one; she nibbled on her inner lip again, "What, you want the whole sob story?"

Maybe Cassian should have said no. He had gotten to know so many rebels through the years, got to know so much of their history. That made it sting so much more if one of them was lost in battle or on a mission, which was a count he had lost track of after all this time.

Cassian considered himself a strong man, but he was also an emotional man, which to him seemed like both a great strength and a terrible weakness simultaneously. He felt so connected to all of the rebels no matter how much or how little they interacted, which was a part of why he tried to keep them all at bay. Even if he didn't know a rebel well, Cassian almost always quickly felt as if he had bonded with them, a trait of his that could never simply be turned off or ignored. He had learned to try not to get to know anyone too well through the years, and yet here he sat with Jai, ready to hear her entire life story if she was willing to share it.

So, despite his usual precaution, Cassian lifted his glass and gave it a little shake so that Jai would turn her black eyes to look at it, "So long as we have something to drink, I'll listen to whatever you want to tell me."

He gave Jai a reassuring smirk, which she then reciprocated before drinking from her glass, "Then buckle up, Andor." She paused briefly to consider where to start, "Tillian wasn't my dad, but he took care of me and a few other kids through the years. He tried to teach us all how to slice, and this buddy of his, Vinis, taught us how to steal, how to do business. They were criminals, but they were good guys."

They each took another sip of their drinks, "My… siblings, you could call them, were way better thieves than me, but I really picked up on slicing and mechanics. Got my first scramble key when I was ten." She dug into one of the inner pockets on her jacket to retrieve her current scramble key, "The first one was complete garbage, fucking ancient thing that Tillian had lying around. He had someone bring me this new one a couple years later, once he saw how serious I was about it, and I've been upgrading it ever since."

Cassian smiled with interest, reaching out and taking the scramble key from her hand without considering whether she was even offering for him to hold it or not. But Jai didn't say a thing, allowing the tool to be pulled from between her fingers, and so he studied it.

If he didn't already know what it was, Cassian may have guessed the key to be some kind of datapad, though its dimensions were unlike any datapad he had ever seen; the scramble key was about the length and width of Jai's hand, as if it were designed to fit into her small palm, and Cassian knew from witnessing her use it that the screen slid out to the side to reveal small buttons and tools underneath. Cassian spun it in his hand for a few moments, he's eyes roaming over where shiny new pieces of metal met with old, faded ones, where it was scuffed or even dented from such extensive use through the years.

Finally, he gingerly handed it back.

As Jai pocketed the device, he asked, "What are your siblings doing these days?"

"One of em helps Vinis run a shop back on Kafrene, the other left the colony a couple years back - met some guy who promised him the world, so he ran off with him. We haven't heard from him since." Jai's eyes turned down with irked disappointment, the arguments she and her brothers had about the situation still fresh in her mind even two years later. But she quickly shook off the feeling and the look on her face, telling herself she had moved on from that pain, even if realistically she knew she still hadn't.

"Does the other one know you're here?" Cassian hadn't realized that he nearly finished his glass until he looked down at it, so he knocked back the last of it and set it aside, telling himself that was enough for now, not interested in getting himself drunk on his first night out of the hospital.

Jai looked a little more chipper as she recalled her other brother, giving Cassian a small nod, "I was able to go back to Kafrene a month ago to check in on him and Vinis - they were a little shocked to hear I went and joined the Rebellion."

The two smiled at how strange it was to recall their meeting four months back, when Jai believed she could go on with or without the Rebellion in her life and when Cassian believed she was some useless, good-for-nothing slicer. It was incredible how much could change in just the matter of a few short months.

"And what about Tillian, does he know?"

Jai's expression straightened out, but she didn't look sad or hurt the way she had when talking about her older brother just a minute prior. She looked like she had accepted this disappointment long ago, and could even look back fondly on life before that disappointment, "He died when I was sixteen. He'd been sick for a while, so we all knew it would happen eventually." She smirked while recalling a memory, "Till always refused to see doctors, claimed all the ones on Kafrene were shit… and he wasn't wrong. My arm is still fucked up from being reset by one of them when I was eight."

Jai finished her second glass now, too, but she absently refilled it as if it were a reflex, something she simply did without considering it. Cassian watched as she lifted the cup up to her lips, staring at her with continued curiosity. He nearly went to pick up his own empty glass up off the floor to keep up with her, but he made no move to grab it.

"How'd you end up with Tillian?" Jai paused as she was lowering her glass, her head slightly cocking. The question made her realize they had only been talking about her this entire time, and she gave a slight grimace - she hated to hog the conversation like that. Jai didn't mind talking about herself, but she didn't like only talking about herself.

Jai lowered her glass to rest atop her knee, her index finger soundlessly tapping against it as she looked back at Cassian, "We've talked about me way too much and you too little."

Cassian's face dropped just slightly before he tried to evade her implication, "What, hacking the computers and reading a file on me wasn't enough?"

Jai laughed through her nose while rolling her eyes, giving Cassian a look as she lazily pointed at him in defense, "Hey, I only skimmed that."

Though she managed to make him grin, Cassian still tried to deflect, "There's nothing to know. I've been a soldier my whole life, and nothing interesting ever happens to me."

"Says the guy who was just in medical for three days because he was nearly blown up." Jai laughed, taking a long swig from her glass.

Despite himself, Cassian smiled at the woman, noticing from the color in her face and the glassiness of her eyes that the Merenzane was taking effect. Jai finished off this glass far faster than the earlier two and set it down beside the bottle near her feet before readjusting in her seat. She pulled her legs up underneath her, causing her knees to slightly crowd Cassian, but she didn't seem to notice. Jai propped her elbow onto the back of the couch and used her fist as a resting place for her cheek as she decided her next approach.

"How about we trade a question for a question?" She looked into Cassian's eyes hopefully as he considered the request. Briefly, he wondered if he could simply keep avoiding her inquiries, but Cassian had a feeling that would stir up some trouble between them, and right now he felt too relaxed to let a fight interrupt this strange budding friendship.

So, he gave a single nod, "Fine, but don't get too nosy."

He pointed a finger at her as if for emphasis, causing Jai to giggle. Cassian was nearly taken aback by the unexpected sound, so unlike her usual mocking laughs, higher than her usual tone of voice, and he couldn't resist the smile that pulled at his lips.

"Alright," Jai thought for a brief moment before deciding to start simple, "Where are you from?"

"Fest, Outer Rim." He replied without missing a beat, "You probably haven't heard of that one either?"

Jai shook her head as she smirked, "I barely know what's in the Expansion Region, and I fucking lived there for eighteen years."

Cassian grinned smally at her reply, deciding his first question from what she just said, "Where were you from before Kafrene?"

"No idea." Jai said plainly and rather carelessly, to which Cassian pulled a confused expression, obviously rearing to ask for an explanation. Jai lifted her finger up to stop him, "Ah, my turn to ask, you'll have to wait till the next round." Cassian rolled his eyes, "When did you join up with the Rebellion?"

Cassian paused to consider it for a moment, trying to recall the year - though he had become a child soldier at six, those first years weren't directly related to the Alliance. But a lot of circumstances and events blurred together, so for a long second he tried to map out the timeline in his head, "I had to have been about thirteen, give or take."

Cassian's eyes looked away from Jai, falling onto the bottle near her feet. Despite deciding earlier that a glass and a half was enough Merenzane, he was beginning to rethink that if Jai was going to start asking more prying questions. So, he leaned forward to grab for it, setting his right hand atop Jai's knee to steady himself as he scooped it up. As Cassian sat back up, Jai snatched the bottle mischievously, taking a sip straight from it before grinning at Cassian and holding it back out to him. As he took it back, a matching grin on his face, his hand lingered on Jai's knee. As he copied the woman, forgetting his glass entirely and taking his own swig straight from the bottle, Cassian realized where his hand was still lying, and so he pulled it back slowly, fingers briefly trailing along her thigh while they met eyes.

"So, why don't you know where you're from?" Cassian asked as he relaxed into the seat, turning as best he could on the cramped couch so that he was facing Jai with his back against the stiff armrest.

Jai puckered her lips to the side as she thought about her answer, her eyes dancing around the room for a moment as if she could find just the right words somewhere along the walls, "I can't really remember anything about all that, I was too young - everything I know is what Tillian has told me."

Absentmindedly, Jai lifted her head off of the hand she was propping it on, and walked the hand along the back of the couch, up onto Cassian's right shoulder for a brief moment, before trailing her fingers back towards herself, all the while her eyes had still been drifting around the room. At the unexpected contact, Cassian pulled a puzzle, though nonetheless amused, look, but it appeared as if Jai hadn't even been aware of her hand - was that a normal odd habit, or a drunken one?

"I've never known my age for sure, but Tillian said I was almost definitely five when he found me. I think he actually knew my exact age and who I was before he found me… I mean, he was one of the best slicers in the Expansion Region, he could have found that info whenever he wanted. I don't know why he wouldn't have told me, though." Jai's black eyes finally drifted back to Cassian, "He saved me from smugglers who were in Kafrene at the time. They could make a pretty penny off of child slaves, apparently. Tillian was a part of a group on the Ring that had been trying to stop them for a while, and they finally did on the mission he found me."

Cassian wasn't at all prepared for the answer he was given, and Jai managed to leave him speechless. She took in his expression, which was one she had seen on the faces of others many times before, and waved her hand dismissively as if she could wipe it right off.

"Don't look at me like that, you can't be hurt by something that you don't even remember." She took the bottle from his hand.

"It's just… shocking." After taking her sip, Jai handed the bottle back to Cassian, who looked as if he had a dozen more questions that her story had spawned, but he refrained from asking any of them quite yet.

"Hm…" Now that Jai had begun to give in to the buzz of the alcohol, every little movement she made was something new and unexpected for Cassian. She pursed her lips nearly every time she paused to think, her eyes couldn't appear to stay focused on one spot for more than a second, and her left hand seemed to have a mind of its own as it kept moving along the back of the couch, though it had yet to wander up onto his shoulder again. Even her eyes seemed a little larger as they danced around the room, though they didn't look as if they'd opened any wider than before - it was a look akin to innocence that had changed her face so noticeably, "… How'd you get stuck with a droid as your partner in crime?"

Cassian laughed, unexpectedly delight in the question. That had to be the alcohol getting to him as well, "Ran into him last year during a mission on- wait, you wouldn't know." Jai laughed at the way he cut himself off - Cassian was right, she probably wouldn't recognize the name of the planet he was about to mention, "We managed to wipe most of his programming during a fight, and he got me off that planet safely. Since then a partnership just… worked with him, and I never thought to question it. Maybe it says something about me that I spend most of my time with a reprogrammed Imperial droid."

"It says that your social skills need some fucking work." Jai said with a big laugh, clearly finding herself to be something of a comedian. Though Cassian rolled his eyes, he too let out an unworried laugh.

"My social skills are _fine_." He retorted, bringing the bottle back to his lips; he realized just how much lighter the bottle was now than it had been when they first sat down.

Jai glanced at him doubtfully, "I'm sure Kay would beg to differ."

Cassian shot her a narrow eyed look, causing Jai to giggle again. Cassian surprised himself as he thoughtlessly reached over with his free hand to give Jai's shoulder a good-natured shove, which pulled another laugh out of her as she reached out and shoved him back. Her hand lingered on his shoulder then glided down onto the top of his bicep, her smile large as she looked at Cassian's relaxed expression.

Cassian couldn't immediately recall a time when he felt this calm. He was always so careful to avoid letting his guard down, and yet Jai made it far too easy. And bringing along that Merenzane Gold certainly helped. Maybe that was her plan all along, and maybe he played right into it. But Cassian couldn't deny how freeing it was to just forget his worries and stress, to relax with an acquaintance - no, maybe she was almost a friend - and actually live like a twenty-six year old for a little while.

Cassian's own age shocked him at that very moment - only twenty-six years old, and yet he easily felt like he was double his age. What was it like to be a twenty-six year old man that didn't constantly carry the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders? To be twenty-six and to have some kind of normal job where he left at a reasonable hour and went home to an apartment rather than a barracks dorm. To be twenty-six and have normal relationships, friends that he saw regularly and didn't fear to open up to. To be twenty-six and for his greatest concern to be whether to go out or stay in on his free evenings.

But that wasn't Cassian's life, and he had accepted that. He didn't allow himself moments to question it or to doubt it, moments to feel some sort of severe existential crisis where he wondered if he had wasted his entire life away on a hopeless cause. No, Cassian couldn't allow himself to have those moments. He knew what he was, he knew what he was fighting for, and he knew that it was worth all of his efforts. And he's never had any reason to doubt that.

Cassian was stirred from his thoughts as he felt the Merenzane bottle being pried from his fingers, blinking at Jai who hadn't seemed to notice he zoned out. Or maybe she was just pretending she hadn't noticed. She shook the bottle as she assessed the weight, shooting Cassian a look.

"You owe me a Merenzane Gold," She said cheekily while putting her mouth on the lip of the bottle and knocking back the last of the alcohol.

Cassian blew air out between his lips as he narrowed his eyes at the woman with a shake of his head, "It was _your_ idea to bring it."

He realized Jai's hand was still on his arm, comfortably resting there with no intention of moving; he stared down at her hand for a few long moments with a raised brow.

"Well, I'll know better than to make that mistake next time." Jai laughed to herself, her hand squeezing his arm just slightly as her drunken eyes wandered around the room again.

"Oh, you think there'll be a next time?" Cassian grinned as Jai looked back toward him, narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips just a little.

"I'm sure there will be." She answered confidently. Her eyes widened suddenly as she perked up, her hand finally sliding off of Cassian's arm. A part of him nearly missed the touch, but that thought disappeared just as quickly as it had come to him, "Oh! It's your turn." Cassian gave her a confused look, to which Jai rolled her eyes, "To ask a question."

Cassian had completely forgotten the game after Jai's last question, which had only happened a few minutes ago, right? Maker, he was tipsier than he thought.

Cassian's brows furrowed together as he thought for a moment, trying to remember what he had already asked - did he have any other questions? Jai already told him so much, he wasn't sure what was left to ask about. Or maybe that was the alcohol causing him to forget the line-up of questions he had already planned out.

"I… can't think of anything."

"How _boring_." Jai teased as she rolled her eyes, resting her hands on her knees and leaning toward him a little, "There are a _million_ questions we could ask one another and you can't think of one more?"

"I don't like your tone." Cassian teased back with surprising ease, getting another weak shove to his shoulder. His eyes brightened slightly as an idea came to him, "Here, I've got one: what would you like me to ask you?"

"Cassian, that is _not_ a real question." Jai giggled around his name.

"What's not real about it?" His smile was surprisingly large as he asked, raising his hands in a near shrug, "You never establish any rules about the kinds of questions we could ask."

"Well, I'm establishing the rule _now_ ," Jai lifted her hand and motioned downwards roughly with her index finger, the gesture indicating that she was putting her foot down on the subject, "You cannot ask that question again."

Without missing a beat, Cassian asked, "Okay, here's my next one: what questions would you like me to _not_ ask?"

Jai made an exasperated sound as she smacked Cassian's shoulder again, falling into a brief giggle fit as she did so. Cassian smiled contently at the woman before him, feeling an unexpected, foreign warmth in his chest.

 _'How could I have hated her?'_ He thought as Jai composed herself. Cassian's face sobered suddenly at this unrecognizable solicitude he had toward her in that moment - how could he both love and hate a feeling at the exact same moment? This warmth that he felt, this untrouble casualness… it made him feel vulnerable. Anxious. Cassian didn't let himself feel these things, and yet here he was with a complete disregard for the wall that he kept up so firmly around himself.

What was he doing?

"I have a question for _you_ , Cassian." Jai started again, the man's anxiety going completely unnoticed by the drunk woman.

Did she really not see the nerves in his eyes? No, she couldn't have - Cassian studied her expression for a moment and was certain she was just drunk enough to be oblivious to the small crisis he had right there in front of her. It was better that she didn't notice - it meant he didn't have to explain himself, that she wouldn't ask prying questions on the subject.

Jai took a deep breath, as if what she was about to say next was of severe importance and required her utmost focus. Cassian tried to pull himself together as he awaited the question, "Did we become friends tonight?"

A nonplus expression crossed Cassian's face, being entirely unprepared for that type of question. What a _drunk_ thing to ask. It nearly made him sigh in relief, though - he'd rather get a drunken question than anything else, even if the drunken question was still something he didn't want to answer. Better that it was asked now rather than when Jai was sober.

Nonetheless, Cassian paused as he considered how to answer her - it made him anxious again to consider what he was supposed to say to that. Jai stared at him with patient eyes, and the look made him tear his own eyes away to try to focus, though the feeling of her gaze on him was palpable and hard to ignore.

"Do you think we did?" He finally asked, dragging his gaze back towards her slowly. Jai narrowed her eyes comically at him as she unexpectedly clapped her hand down atop his thigh as if rearing to reprimand him yet again. As Cassian glanced down at the woman's hand, her fingers gave a slight squeeze while she leaned forward just a little.

"You're avoiding the question… but yes." Jai smiled while pulling back from him, slouching a little against the arm of the couch, " _Apparently_ , you don't have friends. But _I_ think you consider every single person here a friend and you just don't want to admit it. You're way too emotional to be a guy that doesn't have friends."

Jai's observation left Cassian momentarily stunned, he even pulled back just a little with how unexpected it was. She smiled at his reaction, interpreting it as confirmation that what she just said was accurate, humming to herself as she absentmindedly started looking around Cassian's room again.

Jai knew she needed to sleep soon. Even drunk, she always knew when she was about to crash. In fact, being drunk actually helped her, or so she claimed - drunk Jai was more aware of herself than sober Jai, at least when it came to her body's wants and needs. And right now, she could feel herself coming down from the height of the alcohol spike, which meant any minute now she'd want to curl up into bed and have the best sleep of her life. The fact that she had to be up and working tomorrow was completely forgotten.

"I'm gonna go now." She said simply with chipper in her tone, to which Cassian's brow furrowed as if he'd been thrown for a loop.

"Okay?" Was she bored of him? Or had she simply said her piece and decided that was the perfect moment to retreat, to leave him to ponder what she just said?

Upon noticing the look on her friend's face, Jai explained quite simply, "I'm tired."

"Oh." Cassian nodded, noticing that he too was beginning to feel sleep behind his eyes despite the fact that he had been resting for two and a half days. He straightened up a little to stretch out his back, trying to collect his thoughts as he heard his spin crack, "Let me walk you back."

"No," Jai drawled as she patted his knee, "I'm good."

She sprang up, arms sticking out slightly on either side of her for balance. She blinked a couple of times as she felt her head spin from how quickly she moved - did she just wobble on her feet, or was that feeling just in her head? Regardless, the slight dizziness she felt was telling.

"On second thought," She started, turning to Cassian and holding her hand out toward him to help him rise to his feet, "I could use your help; I'll probably get lost out there."

Cassian smirked at the woman's quick change in attitude, eyeing the outstretched hand in front of him before pushing himself off of the couch without her help. As Jai's arm flopped back down to her side, Cassian carefully stretched his arms above his head, not noticing the way Jai's eyes seemed to zero in on the flash of his abdomen when his shirt lifted with the motion. After collecting his bearings, Cassian looked back to Jai and motioned towards the door.

"Alright, let's go." He instructed, keeping a careful eye on the way the woman began to walk - she was a little shaky, but she seemed steady enough. That was good - last thing he wanted was to get stuck carrying Jai to her room.

As they exited Cassian's dorm, he remained a couple steps behind Jai, continuing to monitor the way she walked. After wandering down the hall silently for a minute, Jai paused to turn back toward him, raising a brow.

"Walk up here with me." She instructed, and Cassian hesitantly obliged. As they started forward again side-by-side, Jai moved a little closer so that their shoulders were bumping with almost every step they took. Cassian tried not to think about it too much.

A few minutes later, they were at Jai's room, Cassian pausing in the doorframe to make sure Jai made it inside okay. Jai spun on her heels to look up at the man, giving him a tired smile which Cassian couldn't help but reciprocate.

"Tonight was good." She said happily, "Who knew you could actually be fun?"

Cassian teasingly rolled his eyes, quipping, "Who knew you could be tolerable?"

Jai scoffed mockingly, giving his pec a light push, "You still need to learn how to socialize."

Cassian simply nodded to appease her, looking back over his shoulder and out into the hall; he didn't expect anyone to pass by based on the hour, and evening shift change wouldn't be for another few hours. Maybe he was just trying to avoid Jai's surprisingly intense eyes.

"Get some sleep," He started, looking back down at her, "I'm sure you have an early call time tomorrow."

Jai's expression dropped quickly as she gave a dramatic groan, her eyes glaring tiredly at Cassian, "I hate you."

He huffed out a laugh while sticking his hands into his pockets, "I'm not the one that made you drink, that was your own bad idea."

Jai continued to frown up at him, but begrudgingly she knew he was right. She was going to be in for a shit morning.

"Night, Jai." Cassian took one step back into the hallway, looking in either direction once more. When he looked back at the woman in front of him, she reached forward, her small hand securing itself around his wrist. Cassian froze, brows perking just slightly as he looked down at their point of contact before finding her eyes again.

"Cass…" Despite himself, the nickname nearly gave him goosebumps.

What the hell was that about? He could feel that bubble again in his chest, that conflicting warmth and anxiety battling it out as his heart drummed just a little bit louder. Neither he nor Jai moved as they stared at one another, Cassian with an expectant yet edgy look, Jai with an indiscernible one.

Jai smiled. Kindly, genuinely, and with that carefree contentment that only a drunk person could ever have in a moment like this. And then she let go, her fingertips trailing Cassian's wrist for a brief moment and causing his hand to twitch unexpectedly. Jai stepped back into her room as she lifted her hand in a lazy wave.

"Good night." Her tone was just above a whisper as she turned into the room, her door sliding closed behind her and leaving Cassian to stare where she had just been standing.

For a beat, Cassian was frozen in front of her door, staring at it with furrowed confusion. He _did not_ like this foreign sensation in his chest, didn't trust it and didn't want it. He should have been smarter than to let Jai over for drinks, and yet his curiosity led him to doing it anyway.

Cassian would be absolutely lying to himself if he said he didn't have fun. This was one of the most relaxed evenings he's had in Maker knows how long. But he shouldn't have let either of them drink.

As Cassian started back up the halls towards his own room, he couldn't help but smile to himself, despite the anxiety nagging at his thoughts - he and Jai would forget this evening, what was there to worry about? Neither of them would forget it in its entirety, especially not Cassian, but by the time he woke up in the morning any of the stress Jai had caused him would be gone from his memory. Or so he told himself.

Back in his dorm, Cassian returned to the sofa to collect the forgotten glasses and empty Merenzane Gold bottle, setting them in the sink to deal with later. He leaned his rear against the counter as he crossed his arms, eyes looking about his small room absentmindedly. For a moment, he recalled the way he and Jai had so seamlessly teased one another, how she laughed, how she openly revealed her life and openly listened to the admittance of his own. It was strange and unfamiliar to Cassian to share so blatantly - if anything about his past ever came up, generally he tried to be as vague as possible. But Jai was without hesitation, comfortable with sharing as if she never had to question whether or not her past would be used against her. Cassian wasn't quite so familiar with that feeling.

Once again, he found himself wondering how he could have ever hated her - his first impression was far from the reality of what kind of a person Jai was, what kind of layers she actually had beyond her initial persona. He wondered just how poor his own impression on her was, and wondered why she'd even be willing to give Cassian a second chance when he was so damned hesitant to give her the same.

Cassian felt another rush of that conflicting chill and heat as he realized that right now was the first moment that he knew without a doubt that he could trust Jai completely.

* * *

Trust [truhst]

_noun_

1\. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing

2\. confident expectation of something; hope

_verb_

1\. to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something: to trust in another's honesty

2\. to have confidence; hope


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